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HlBRARY OF CONGRESS.! 

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UNITED STATES OP 



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GUIDE-BOOK 



IN THE 



ADMINISTRATION OF THE DISCIPLINE 



OF TIIE 



SJtetjjff&ist <%ist0pl Cjjurt|v. 



BY OSMON C. BAKER, D. D. 



REVISED BY BISHOP HARRIS. / 



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NEW YORK:^ 

N EL S. ON & P H LL LIPS 

. CINCINNATI: HITCHCOCK & WALDEN. 
.1873'. 



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Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1873, by 

NELSON & PHILLIPS, 

in the Ofiice of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. 



EDITORIAL NOTE. 



In this edition the principles and precedents of ecclesiastical 

jurisprudence, as set forth by Bishop Baker in former editions, 

have not been materially modified. Such changes, however, 

have been made as were rendered necessary by the legislation 

of the last General Conference, and it is believed that the work 

will still be found, as heretofore, an important aid to pastors in 

administering the Discipline of the Church. 

William L. Harris. 
New York, February 1, 18f3. 



PREFACE 



The design of this little manual is to furnish 
junior preachers with a brief, plain Guide for 
the correct discharge of their official duties. 
We have made no attempt to explain and 
defend our ecclesiastical system; this has 
been sufficiently done in several popular 
works, which are widely spread among our 
people. Nor have we aimed at endeavouring 
to impress our rising ministry with a deeper 
sense of ministerial obligation, and to set 
forth the moral and religious elements which 
compose the character of "able ministers of 
the New Testament." There are already 
many extensive and able treatises upon these 
varied topics. But there is a demand, we 
apprehend, for a practical work which shall 



4 PREFACE. 

descend to the very minutise of the pastor'** 
daily duties. 

In preparing our manual, we have found our- 
selves treading in an unbeaten path : no work 
of this kind has been attempted, if we may 
except Bishop Hedding's most admirable " Dis- 
course on the Administration of the Discipline." 
This discourse has created a desire for a more 
extended work of the same general character. 
By the extension and division of our work, 
the young preacher is now often necessarily put 
immediately in pastoral charge, and is conse- 
quently deprived of the counsels and experi- 
ence of senior preachers, which were formerly 
enjoyed. 

We are not unaware of the difficulty of 
furnishing a work which shall be generally 
acceptable, from the different usages which 
prevail, to some extent, in different parts of 
the country, and the conflicting opinions of 
leading men: but it has been our aim to 
ascertain the general views of the best in- 
formed upon the several topics discussed, and 
to present them in a brief and lucid manner. 



PKEFACE. O 

■ 

We have endeavoured to give particular 
attention to the several sections relating to 
Church trials; guarding, on the one hand, 
against too close an analogy to civil proceed- 
ings and mere ecclesiastical technicalities ; 
and, on the other, against a loose and arbi- 
trary mode of procedure. The evils which 
the Church has suffered from these causes 
should put every administrator on his guard. 
But we have found it impossible to express 
our meaning with clearness and precision 
without employing legal terms more fre- 
quently than we have desired. 

This work is not presented as an official 
one; it is simply suggestive and advisory, 
for which the author is alone responsible. It 
is not a record of legal decisions by which the 
administration of the Church is to be govern- 
ed, but a brief compend, exhibiting rather the 
usage than the law of the Church. Most ap- 
propriately can we employ the language of our 
late senior bishop : " I have not the vanity to 
suppose it is free from errors, but it is an offer- 
ing of the best light I have on the subject. It 



6 PREFACE. 

may be proper to say, however, that on most 
of the points which contain opinions on dis- 
cipline I have conversed frequently and 
largely with many of our most enlightened 
and able ministers, and they agree with these 
opinions." 

For many years past, we have noted down 
every valuable suggestion which we have 
heard or read relating to our practical econo- 
my; and having modified, written, and re- 
written many of them frequently, we are not 
able now to give the credit which is due for 
many of these suggestions. At the earnest 
request of many friends this little manual is 
given to the public, hoping that it may prove 
a vade mecum to the young minister, and 
render some aid in the discharge of the du- 
ties of the pastorate. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 
Church Membership. 

Section I. — Members, 

Page 

1. Pastors the constituted authority to receive members. ... 21 

2. Membership should not depend upon a vote 22 

3. Receiving members residing in another charge 22 

4. How expelled members can be received 23 

5. How withdrawn members can be received 24 

6. Reception of members from other orthodox Churches 24 

7. Orthodox Churches denned 24 

8. Membership when the administration has been incorrect . 25 

Section II.— Probationers. 

1. Caution in receiving members on trial 26 

2. By whom received • 27 

8. General qualifications required 27 

4. Period of probation 28 

5. Rights and privileges of probationers 29 

6. Not liable to Church trial , 29 

Section III,— Withdrawal. 

1. Church relation depends upon the pleasure of the parties 31 

2. When the Church can be a party to a withdrawal 32 

3. When a member can claim a right to withdraw 32 

4. The Church may suffer a withdrawal '. 33 

5. Relation of societies which reject regularly appointed 

pastors 34 

6. "When a request to withdraw can be recalled 34 

7. Relation of such persons as refuse to perform their cove- 

nant vows 35 

8. To whom the request to withdraw to be presented 35 



8 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER II. * 
The Conferences. 

Section I. — Annual Conferences. 

Page 

1. First annual conference 36 

2. Districts 36 

3. Circuits 37 

4. Eelation of episcopacy to the general and annual confer- 

ences 38 

5. Prerogatives of the president of an annual conference. . . 39 

6. Division of circuits 41 

7. Episcopal decisions 42 

8. Commencement of conference year 43 

9. Special transfers 43 

10. Who must attend conference 44 

11. Preachers refusing to go to their work 44 

12. The General Conference order about receiving members 45 

13. Demanding a location 46 

14. When the act of location takes place 46 

15. Certificate of location 46 

16. Eeadmission 46 

17. Withdrawal a bar to readmission 46 

18. Preachers from any branch of the Methodist Church, or 

from any Church agreeing with us in doctrines 47 

19. Admission from other Churches 47 

20. Eights of superannuated preachers, and their quarterly 

conference relations 47 

21. Preacher on trial 48 

22. Term of service on an individual charge 48 

23. Every effective preacher must receive an appointment. . 48 

24. Preachers appointed to schools and colleges 48 

25. Preachers on trial 49 

26. Advisory character of conference requests respecting ap- 

pointments 49 

27. Eights of transferred ministers 49 

Section II. — District Conferences. 

1. When district conferences may be held 50 

2. Of whom composed -. 50 



CONTENTS. 9 

Page 

8. Meets twice a year.,. 51 

4. President 51 

5. Powers of district conferences 51 

6. Candidates must be recommended 52 

7. Are not authorized to renew licenses 52 

8. Must inquire about the benevolent collections and op- 

portunities for missionary labors 53 

Section III. — Quarterly Conferences. 

1. Origin of quarterly conferences 53 

2, 3. Powers 54 

4. Members 55 

5. President 56 

6. Secretary 56 

7. Power over Sunday-schools and Sunday-school societies 56 

8. Sunday-school quarterly report of the preacher to be en- 

tered on the journals 56 

9. By whom the quarterly conference must be appointed. . 57 

10. Adjourning from day to day 57 

11. Adjourned by the president 57 

12. Temperance 57 

13. Quorum 58 

14. Approval of the minutes 58 

Section IV. — Leaders and Stewards'' Meetings. 

1. Origin of leaders' meetings 58 

2. Of whom composed 60 

3. Powers and duties 60 

4. To whom class-leaders are responsible 62 



CHAPTER III. 
Ministers. 

Section I. — Presiding Elders. 

1. Origin of the office 63 

2. Nature of it 63 

3. Decision of law questions 64 

4. Eelation to individual societies 64 

5. Permitting a preacher to leave his work 65 



10 CONTENTS. 

Page 

6. Power to remove preachers 65 

7. Limitation of time applied to superannuated and local 

preachers . . 65 

8. Superintendents of domestic missions 65 

9. Testimonials of applicants for foreign missions 66 

10. Subjects of missionary correspondence 67 

11. Presiding in an annual conference 67 



Section II. — Preacher in Charge. 

1. The term defined 68 

2. Duties of the preacher in charge 68 

3. To whom responsible 72 



Section III. — Local Preachers. 

1. Mode of obtaining license 73 

2. By whom given 73 

3. Renewal of license refused without impeachment 73 

4. How long a license is valid 74 

5. Ecclesiastical year defined 74 

6. Ordained local preachers 75 

7. Eecommendation to travel 75 

8. To whom amenable 76 

9. Prerequisites for ordination 76 

10. When local preachers from British, Irish, and Canada 

conferences are eligible 77 

11. How long recommendations are valid 77 

12. Control of appointments 78 

13. Withdrawal of local preachers 78 



Section IV. — Extorters. 

1. Early recognized 78 

2. Duties of exhorters 78 

3. Under the direction of the preacher in charge 79 

4. Who are eligible to be exhorters 79 

5. By whom licensed 80 

6. To whom responsible 80 



CONTENTS. 11 

CHAPTER IV. 
Certificates and Love-Feasts. 

Section I. — Note of Recommendation. 

Page 

1. Who are entitled to such note 81 

2. Withholding a certificate 81 

3. Who are not entitled to a certificate 81 

4. Eemoval without a certificate 82 

5. To whom a member is responsible after he has taken a 

letter 82 

6. How long a certificate remains valid 82 

7. xlll proper certificates to be received 83 

8. To whom certificates should not be given . . 84 

9. By whom certificates must be given 84 

10. Certificates to those who withdraw . 85 

11. Certificate of ofiicial standing 85 

12. To notify the pastor within whose bounds the member 

removes 85 

Section II. — Love-Feasts. 

1. Origin of love-feasts 85 

2. Why discontinued 86 

3. Design of their institution in our Church 87 

4. Love-feast tickets 88 

5. Who may be admitted 88 

6. Love-feasts at the quarterly meeting 88 

CHAPTER V. 
Chubch Trials. 

Section I. — Trial of Members. 

1. Christian discipline protected by civil authority 89 

2. Privileged communications 91 

3. Eights of members 92 

4. Mr. Wesley's mode of removing disorderly members. . . 93 

Section II. — President oftTie Trial. 

1. Preacher in charge 93 

2. President appointed by presiding elder 95 



12 CONTENTS. 

Page 

3. Junior preacher iucompetent 96 

4. Delivering a charge to the committee 96 

Section III. — Complaint. 

1. Committee of investigation 96 

2. Bill of charges 97 

3. Insufficient evidence 97 

4. Period within which responsible 98 

5. What is indictable 98 

6. Accessories to crime 98 

7. Mode of drawing bill of charges •. 99 

8. Object of formal charges 99 

9. What the charge must involve 100 

10. Correspondence between charges and specifications 100 

11. How expressed 100 

12. Different crimes to be separately given 101 

13. To what extent specific 101 

1 4. What errors no bar to the proceedings 101 

15. By whom charges are to be signed 102 

16. When to be signed by the pastor 102 

17. When several persons are involved 103 

18. Notification of the accused , 103 

19. Where the notice is to be left 104 

Section IV. — Select Committee. 

1. Who eligible 104 

2. By whom appointed 104 

3. Character of the committee 105 

4. Duty of the committee 106 

5. Verdict to be based on testimony 107 

6. Making up judgment 107 

7. Relation of the presiding officer to the committee 109 

8. Ambiguous or equivocal terms 110 

9. Females entitled to vote 110 

Section V. — The Trial. 

1. Duty of the presiding officer 110 

2. Mode of conducting a trial Ill 

3. Confession of guilt 112 

4. Eefusing to answer — 112 



CONTENTS. 13 

Page 

5. Second indictment „ 112 

6. Plea of non-reception 113 

7. Plea in abatement !.....*. 113 

8. New issues 113 

9. Puling out specifications 114 

10. Adjournment by presiding officer 114 

11. Immaterial facts 115 

12. Evading a trial 115 

13. Limited to the charge 115 

14. Pefusing to entertain bill of charges 116 

15. Dismissing the case 116 

16. Counsel to be restricted to the members of the Church. . 116 

17. Where the trial should be held 117 

18. Testimony not to be copied without consent 117 

19. Delivering a charge on trials of preachers 117 

Section VI. — General Laics of Evidence. 

1. Should be understood. . -. - 117 

2. First rule, evidence correspond to the allegation 118 

3. Second rule, sufficient if the substance be proved 118 

4. Third rule, obligation of proving lies upon the complain- 

ant 119 

5. Fourth rule, the best evidence must be produced 120 

6. Hearsay evidence 120 

7. When it is to be admitted 121 

Section YII. — Witnesses, 

1. Number of witnesses : 121 

2. Party in the suit 122 

3. Husband and wife 122 

4. Incompetent witnesses 123 

5. Atheists 123 

6. " "Witnesses from without " : 124 

7. Admissibility a question of law 124 

8. The pastor as a witness 124 

Section VIII. — Examination of Witnesses. 

1. By whom first examined 125 

2. Examined out of each other's hearing 125 

3. Mode of giving testimony . . „ 125 

4. Leading questions , 125 



14 CONTENTS. 

Page 

5. Writing their testimony 126 

6. Impression and belief. 126 

7. Correction of testimony 127 

8. When exceptions should be taken 127 

9. Eefusing to answer 127 

10. Qustions by presiding officer 127 

11. Putting under oath 127 

12. Evidence of good character 128 

13. Impeachment of witnesses 128 

Section IX.— Depositions. 

1. When to be taken 129 

2. Notification 129 

3. Form of notice 130 

4. Form of deposition ^ 130 

5. Should be sealed up , 131 

6. Ex parte deposition 131 

7. Commission at conference 132 

8. Part of a deposition 132 

Section X.— Appeal. 

1. Privilege of appeal 132 

2. Whether it can be entertained 133 

3. Bar to appeal 133 

4. No appeal from record of withdrawal 134 

5. When to be taken 134 

6. Imperfect records 135 

7. Eecords not signed 135 

8. Mode of conducting appeals 136 

9. Admitting appeals. 136 

10. Power of appellate courts 138 

11. Decisions of appellate courts 138 

12. New evidence ....,..,,.. 139 

13. Eelation of expelled members whose cases have been 

remanded ,. . . 139 

14. Quarterly conference cannot reopen a case after an ap- 

peal is taken , 140 

15. Effect of reversing a decision. . . „ 140 

16. Eestoration of official relation , 140 

17. When a decision is .final ". 141 

18. Eelation of a person who has taken an appeal 141 



CONTENTS. 15 

Pase 

19. Appeals to be entered on the records 142 

20. Prosecuting appeals 142 

21. Power of presiding officer in case of appeals 142 

22. May change the venue on demand of either party 143 

Section XI. — New Trial. 

1. By what authority granted 143 

2. Eight of the pastor 143 

3. Steps to be taken 143 

4. When to be allowed 144 

Section XII. — Trial of Local Preachers. 

1. Ministerial responsibility 145 

2. When a committee to be called 145 

3. Number of the committee 146 

4. Who may constitute the committee 147 

5. Mode of conducting the investigation 147 

6. By whom suspended. 147 

7. Acquittal no bar to subsequent trial 148 

8. Mode of conducting the trial 148 

9. What testimony to be admitted 148 

10. Trial in the absence of the accused 149 

11. Punishment awarded by quarterly conference 149 

12. Limit of quarterly conference action 149 

13. When the decision to be given 150 

14. Charges not to be altered 150 

15. Not self-accuser 150 

16. Case before the civil tribunal 150 

17. Counsel not disqualified as members 151 

18. Eule under which the case is brought 152 

Section XIII.— Trial of Traveling Preachers, 

1. Nature of investigating committees 152 

2. Of what offenses take cognizance 152 

3. Beference at the annual conference 153 

4. Beference to the presiding elder for examination 154 

5. Acquittal by the committee no bar to subsequent trial. . 154 

6. By whom suspended 155 

7. Committee when conferences are divided 155 

8. Powers of presiding officer in the examination of a pre- 

siding elder, , , . , . . 155 



16 CONTENTS. 

Page 
9. Place of holding the investigation 155 

10. For what offenses arrested 156 

11. Form of trial 156 

12. Trial in the absence of the accused 157 

13. A suspended preacher cannot afterward be expelled for 

the same offense 157 

14. Period of suspension. . « 157 

15. Location without consent 158 

16. Duty of the secretary 158 

17. Committee cannot sit after the final adjournment of con- 

ference 159 



Section XIV. — Church Offenses. 

1. Specific rule ". 159 

2. The different rules.. 159 

3. When Church labor is required 160 

4. Disseminating erroneous doctrines 161 

5. Mode of treating such as disseminate errors 162 

6. Slander 162 

7. When the truthfulness of the statement may be proved. 163 

8. By whom the charge of slander must be made 163 



Section XV. — Penalty. 

1. Design of penalty 163 

2. Different awards 164 

3. Forgiveness 164 

4. Censure and suspension 166 

5. Period of suspension 166 

6. Penalty based upon charges 166 

7. Eepelling from love-feasts 167 

8. Penalty for maladministration 167 

9. Eeadmission of expelled members 167 

10. Restoration by the annual conference 168 

11. No discretionary power given to the president after the 

verdict is rendered , 168 

12. Public confession. 169 

13. " Beading out " of society 169 

14. Refusing to comply with the requisition of the Church, . 170 



CONTENTS. 17 

Section XVI. — Arbitration. 

Page 

1. History of the rule 170 

2. Discretionary power of the pastor 171 

3. Definition of terms 171 

4. Arbiters members of the Church 171 

5. President of the arbitration 172 

6. Mode of conducting an arbitration 172 

7. When required to arbitrate 172 

8. Dispute with a corporation 173 

9. Eefusing to arbitrate 173 

10. Lawsuits 173 

11. Accounts of those " who fail in business " 173 



CHAPTER VL 
Church Property. 

Section I. — Building Churches and Parsonages, 

1. Pecuniary liabilities 175 

2. Personal liability of the building committee 176 

3. Liability when they exceed the estimated expense. . 177 

Section II. — Trustees, 

1. By whom Church property is held 177 

2. Mode of creating trustees 179 

3. Who are eligible as trustees 179 

4. Limitations of power 180 

5. Entitled to possession 181 

6. For what purposes only the church can be used 182 

7. Trustees of an unincorporated society 182 

8. Term of office 182 

9. Powers of trustees and stewards . . . .. 183 

10. To whom responsible 184 

11. Powers restricted to the objects of their creation 184 



Section III. — Pews. 

1. Legal rights of pew owners 184 

2. Right of occupancy on all public occasions 186 

2 



18 CONTENTS. 

3. Eestriction of rights . . 187 

4. When a right expires 187 

5. Contract for a pew must be written : 188 

6. Pews as real or personal estate 188 

7. Exempt from taxation 188 

8. Selling pews at auction 189 

9. Form of deed of a pew 189 



Section IV. — Subsrciption Papers. 

1. To whom made payable 190 

2. When payment must be demanded 191 

3. Conditional subscriptions 191 

4. Fictitious subscriptions 192 

5. Deductions by the collector 192 

6. When not collectable 192 



CHAPTER VII. 
Ministerial Support. 

Section 1.— Allowance. 

1. Salaries at different periods 193 

2. Support and supplies * 193 

3. Fifth collection 198 

4. Chartered fund 199 

5. Traveling expenses of preachers 199 

6. Traveling expenses of editors 199 

7. Estimating committee 200 

8. Appropriations to those in debt to the Book Concern. . . 201 

9. Supply of the pulpit during the session of the annual 

conference 201 

10. Absent on official business 201 

1L Serving a corporation or benevolent institution 201 

12. Suspension cuts off claim 202 

13. Widow's claim 202 

14. Adopted children 202 



CONTEXTS. 19 

Section II. — Stewards,, 

Page 

1. Origin of stewards •. 203 

2. Their duties 203 

3. By whom appointed 207 

4. To whom responsible 207 

5. Eecording stewards 207 

6. Eesignation of office 208 

7. Stewards when two circuits are united 208 

CHAPTER Till. 
Rules of Oedek, 

1. Parliamentary rules, ... 208 

2. Temporary organization 209 

3. Permanent organization 211 

4. Presiding officer 211 

5. Secretary 213 

6. Members . V ■ 215 

7. Motions • 216 

8. Indefinite postponement 217 

9. Laying on the table 217 

10. Eeferring to a committee 218 

11. Division of a question 218 

12. Pilling blanks 219 

13. Amendments 219 

14. Privileged questions 222 

15. Adjournment 222 

16. Orders of the day 223 

17. Incidental questions • 224 

18. Questions of order 224 

19. Previous question 225 

20. Order of proceeding 226 

21. Order in debate 228 

22. Taking the question 230 

23. Eeconsideration 231 

24. Committees 232 

25. Eeports of committees 233 

26. Minority report 233 

27. Committee of the whole 234 

28. Eules of the General Conference of 1872 236 



20 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IX. 
FORMTTLAS. 

Sectiok I. — Formulas for Preachers in Charge. 

Page 

1. Note of recommendation to a member 244 

2. Exhorter's license 245 

3. Recommendation to a local preacher 245 

4. Class-book 246 

5. Church register for a successor 246 

6. Register of the children -. 246 

7. Collections for benevolent objects 247 

8. Steward's certificate 247 

9. Benevolent institutions 247 

10. Wills 248 

Section - II. — Formulas for Presiding Elders. 

1. License of a local preacher 250 

2. Recommendation to the traveling connection 250 

3. Recommendation for deacon or elder's orders 251 

4. Recommendation for recognition of orders 252 

5. Recommendation for restoration of credentials 252 

6. Superannuated preacher's certificate 253 



A GUIDE-BOOK 



IN THE 



ADMINISTRATION OF THE DISCIPLINE. 



-M*- 



CHAPTER I. 
CHURCH MEMBERSHIP. 

Section I. — Members. 

1. The regularly-constituted pastor is the 
proper authority to admit suitable persons to 
the communion of the Church. The preacher 
in charge, acting at first under the authority of 
Mr. Wesley, received members into the society, 
and severed their relations from the Church, 
according to his own convictions of duty. In 
1784 the assistant was restricted from giving 
tickets to any, until they had been recommended 
by a leader with whom they had met, at least 
two months, on trial. In 1789 the term of pro- 
bation was extended to six months. In 1836 
the phrase, " give tickets to none,' 3 was changed 
to " let none be received into the Church." 



22 CHURCH MEMBERSHIP. [Chap. I, 

Hence, since the organization of our Church, 
none could be received into full communion 
who had not previously been recommended by 
a leader ; and, since 1840, it has been required 
that the applicant pass a satisfactory examina- 
tion before the Church, respecting the correct- 
ness of his doctrine and his willingness to ob- 
serve the rules of the Church. 

2. Membership in a Christian Church should 
never depend upon the result of a vote ; and 
yet, if any member of the Church is not satis- 
fied, with the evidence presented, of the moral 
and Christian character of the candidate, he 
should have an opportunity to make objections 
to his reception. In no case, however, should 
the reception of a person be a matter of public 
debate before the Church. When it is known 
that objections exist, the reception of the person 
should be postponed, and private measures 
adopted which will secure the purity and peace 
of the Church, 

3. It is unfavorable to good government in 
the Church for a preacher, under any circum- 
stances, to receive into membership, in his 
charge, a person living in the bounds of another 
pastoral charge ; yet established usage justifies 



Sec. L] MEMBERS. 23 

it under some circumstances, especially in cities, 
where there are separate charges, and where it 
is difficult to define them geographically. But, 
in these circumstances, comity and Christian 
courtesy should be strictly maintained. It is 
possible that there may be cases of mere preju- 
dice, without any tangible cause, that might 
render one society unwilling to admit a person 
to membership which would not be a sufficient 
reason for preventing him from joining another 
society ; but when responsible members of the 
society where the person lives present specific 
objections to the reception of the person in an- 
other society, especially if the objection grows 
out of former Church relations, or the disciplin- 
ary action of the Church, the person should not 
be received until satisfaction is made to the ag- 
grieved society. (Bishop Janes.) 

4. " If a member has been expelled according 
to due disciplinary forms, and, without chang- 
ing his residence, should go to another Meth- 
odist society and join on trial, it would be mal- 
administration for the preacher, at the expiration 
of six months, to receive such a person into the 
Church, provided that no satisfaction had been 
given to the society which arraigned him ; for 
the Discipline expressly declares : ' After such 



24 CHURCH MEMBERSHIP. [Chap. I, 

forms of trial and expulsion, such persons shall 
have no privileges of society, or of sacraments, 
in our Church, without contrition, confession, 
and satisfactory reformation. 55 ' — Bps. Waugh 
and Janes. 

5. A member who has withdrawn, or been 
expelled from our Church, and who never after- 
ward connected himself with another evangel- 
ical Church, cannot again be received unless he 
joins on trial, as in the first instance. 

6. " Persons in good standing in other ortho- 
dox Churches, who desire to unite with us, may, 
by giving satisfactory answers to the usual in- 
quiries^ be received at once into full fellowship. 55 
The society must decide what is evidence of 
" good standing in other orthodox Churches. 55 
Letters of dismission and recommendation are 
not necessarily required, as some denominations 
never grant such, unless they are to be presented 
to sister Churches of their own denomination.' 
Such persons, however, should certify the 
Churches of which they have been members 
of their intention to join another Church, and 
of their consequent withdrawal. 

7. By " orthodox" or evangelical Churches are 



Sec. I] MEMBERS. 25 

meant those whose doctrinal creed embraces, 
especially, the divinity and atonement of our 
Lord Jesus Christ, the depravity of the human 
heart, justification by faith alone and regenera- 
tion by the Holy Ghost, the witness of the 
Spirit, and future rewards and punishments, 
and whose communicants generally are reputed 
to be devout and Christian men, 

8. The following law decision was rendered 
by the General Conference of 1860 : 

" 1. If a preacher in charge of any work re- 
ceive a person into the Church contrary to the 
Discipline can the Annual Conference correct 
the adminstration, and declare that the person, 
having been received contrary to Discipline, is 
therefore not a member ? 

"Answer. No. This question was decided 
by the General Conference of 1852 by the adop- 
tion of the following resolution : 

" Resolved^ That when an Annual Conference 
decides that a preacher having charge has re- 
ceived or expelled a member contrary to the 
Discipline, the decision does not exclude the 
member so received, but restores the member 
so expelled. (General Conference Journal, 
page 1Z)"—Gen. Conf. Jour., p, 297, 



26 CHUECH MEMBERSHIP. [Chap. I, 

Section II. — Probationers. 

1. If the visible Church of Christ is a con- 
gregation of faithful men, in which the pure 
word of God is preached and the sacraments 
duly administered, as our Articles of Religion 
teach, it is a matter of vital importance to test, 
with deep scrutiny, the moral and Christian 
character of those who propose to enter her 
holy communion. No proselyte was admitted 
to Jewish fellowship without being well proved 
and instructed. The same care was observed 
by the early Christian Church. " None in those 
clays," says Lord King, u were hastily advanced 
to the higher forms of Christianity, but, accord- 
ing to their knowledge and merit, gradually ar- 
rived thereto." Bishop Stillingfleet remarks 
that one principal cause " of the great flourish- 
ing of religion in the primitive times was the 
strictness used by them in their admission of 
members " into Church fellowship. Origen, in 
his treatise against Celsus, remarks that " they 
did inquire into the lives and carriages to dis- 
cern their seriousness in the profession of Chris- 
tianity during their being catechumens ; " and 
if they evinced true repentance and reformation 
of life, they were then admitted to a participa- 
tion of the mysteries. 



Sec. II.] PROBATIONERS. 27 

2. It is the prerogative of the preacher in 
charge alone to receive persons on trial. No 
one whose name is taken by a class-leader can 
be considered as a member on trial until the 
preacher recognizes him as such. 

3. The general qualifications of those who join 
on trial are, " a desire to flee from the wrath to 
come, and to be saved from their sins." This 
desire, however, must be evinced " by doing no 
harm, by avoiding evil of every kind," " by doing 
good," " by instructing, reproving, or exhorting 
all they have any intercourse with," "by running 
with patience the race which is set before them, 
denying themselves, and taking up their cross 
daily, submitting to bear the reproach of Christ, 
to be as the filth and offscouring of the world, 
and looking that men should say all manner of 
evil of them falsely for the Lord's sake," and 
" by attending upon all the ordinances of God." 
As the minister may not know whether the can- 
didate makes a truthful declaration of his moral 
state, he is authorized " to admit none on trial 
except they are well recommended by one he 
knows, or until they have met twice or thrice in 
class." As the candidate is not supposed, at the 
time of joining on trial, to be acquainted with 
our doctrines, usages, and discipline, he is not 



28 CHURCH MEMBERSHIP. [Chap. I. 

required, at that time, to subscribe to our 
articles of religion and general economy ; 
but if he proposes to join in full connection, 
" he must give satisfactory assurances both of 
the correctness of his faith and his willing- 
ness to observe and keep the rules of the 
Church." A mere probationer enters into no 
covenant with the Church. Every step he 
takes is preliminary to this, and either party 
may, at any time, quietly dissolve the relation 
between them without rupture or specific 
Church labor. 

4. The Discipline does not specify the time 
when the probation shall terminate, but it has 
fixed its minimum period. "Let no one be re- 
ceived into the Church until such person has 
been at least six months on trial" If either 
party desires a longer probation, a judicious 
administrator will readily allow it. A Church 
relation is so sacred and intimate that it should 
not be formed if there are secret misgivings on 
either party. The hand of fellowship, when 
given, should be hearty, sincere, and deeply 
affectionate. But, when both parties are satis- 
fied, and the usual period of probation has ex- 
pired, the candidate should be advised to con- 
summate bis full connection with the Church, 



Sec. IL] PROBATIONERS. 29 

as a duty which he owes to the great Head of 
the Church and to the world. 

5. A member on trial is entitled to the special 
watch-care of the Church ; he has a right to at- 
tend its general religious meetings, its class- 
meetings, and love-feasts. 

A probationer is not entitled to hold any- 
official relation, as steward, class-leader, exhort- 
er, or local preacher. Where a new society has 
just been organized, necessity may compel the 
preacher to appoint some probationer to take 
charge of the class, but such an appointment does 
not give the person a connection with the quar- 
terly conference. None can form a part of this 
important judicatory of our Church who has 
never entered into covenant with us, or signified 
his " willingness to observe and keep the rules 
of our Church." 

Nor is it the order of the Church for proba- 
tioners, who have never been bapt'ized, to par- 
take of the holy sacrament. The initiatory rite 
should first be administered before the person is 
admitted to all the distinguishing rites of the 
new covenant. 

6. A person on trial cannot be arraigned be- 
fore the society, or a select number of them, on 



30 CHURCH MEMBERSHIP. [Chap. I, 

definite charges and specifications. " If he walk 
disorderly, he is passed out by the door at which 
he came in. The pastor, upon the evidence arid 
recommendation required in the Discipline, en- 
tered his name as a candidate, or probationer, 
for membership, and placed him in a class for 
religious training and improvement ; now, if his 
conduct be contrary to the Gospel, or, in the 
language of our rule, if he ' walk disorderly and 
will not be reproved,' it is the duty of the pas- 
tor to discontinue him, to erase his name from 
the class-book and probationers 5 list. This is 
not to be done rashly, or on suspicion, or slight 
evidence of misconduct. It is made the duty of 
his leader to report weekly to his pastor c any 
that walk disorderly and will not be reproved.' 
This implies that the leader, on discovering an 
impropriety in his conduct, firs-t conversed pri- 
vately with him, and, on finding that he had 
done wrong, attempted to administer suitable 
reproof that he might be recovered. Had he 
received reproof, this had been the end of the 
matter; but he ' would not be reproved' — 
would not submit to reproof — and the leader 
therefore reports the case to the pastor. But it 
is evidently the design that after this first failure 
on the part of the leader, further efforts should 
be made by the pastor ; for the rule, after pro- 



Sec. III.] PROBATIONERS. 31 

viding that such conduct shall be made known 
to the pastor, adds : ' We will admonish him 
of the error of his ways. We will bear with 
him for a season. But, then, if he repent not, 
he hath no more place among us.' The pas- 
tor, on consultation with the leader and others 
when convenient in country societies, and with 
the leaders' meeting, where there is one, deter- 
mines on the proper course, and carries the 
determination into effect. Here is a just cor- 
respondence between rights and duties."— Plat. 
Meth., p. 87. 

Section III.— Withdrawal. 

1. Church relation, from the nature of the 
case, must depend upon the mutual pleasure of 
the parties, No Church covenant ought to be 
construed into a solemn pledge and obligation 
to remain during life with that particular branch 
of the Church of Christ with which the person 
first unites. It may, indeed, be deemed a sol- 
emn pledge to remain in fellowship with some 
branch of the visible Church. Dissatisfaction 
with the doctrines or polity of a Church, after 
long and prayerful examination, may be a suffi- 
cient reason why a new Church relationship 
should be formed. 



32 CHURCH MEMBERSHIP. [Chap. I, 

2. As Church relationship is formed to pro- 
mote the mutual holiness of its members, and 
more successfully to extend Christianity through 
the world, the Church can never be a party to 
the removal of a member so long as he dis- 
charges faithfully his covenant vows. As it 
was voluntary for the person to enter this rela- 
tion, so it is optional with him to withdraw 
from this connection whenever he is disposed, 
provided he has faithfully discharged his obli- 
gations. But if he withdraws the act is his 
own, and the responsibility must rest upon him. 
The Church may labor to show him the folly 
and indiscretion of the act, but, if he persists 
in his determination, the Church must give her 
consent ; but the acquiescence of the Church is 
not to be deemed as an assumption of a part 
of the responsibility of the act. 

3. When a Church relation is formed, the 
member, virtually, promises to observe the rules 
and usages of the society, and if he violates 
them, to submit to the discipline of the Church. 
And hence none can claim a withdrawal from 
the Church against whom charges have been 
preferred, or until the Church has had an oppor- 
tunity to recognize the withdrawal. A solemn 
covenant cannot be dissolved until the parties 



Sec. III.] WITHDRAWAL. 33 

are duly notified. The bishops have unani- 
mously declared that " the admission of the 
right to withdraw at option, without the con- 
sent of the Church, especially when under im- 
putation of gross and scandalous offences, would 
operate most injuriously to the maintenance of 
wholesome discipline and sound morals. In 
accordance with this view, we deem it to be 
our duty to say that it is contrary to the econo- 
my and usage of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church to allow ministers or members, when 
guilty of gross violations of the Discipline, to 
evade its salutary authority and force by de- 
claring themselves withdrawn from the juris- 
diction of the Church," (1848.) 

4. But, though no accused member can claim 
the right to withdraw, yet the body to which he 
is responsible may u suffer" an accused member 
"to withdraw from the Church, should he re- 
quest it, before the trial takes place." " For 
scandalous crimes," says Bishop Hedding, " ex- 
pulsion should undoubtedly take place," and if 
the authorities of the Church should proceed 
and expel a member who had violated his 
Church covenant, and declared himself beyond 
the pale of the Church, they would be protected 
by the civil law, provided their action was in 



34 CHURCH MEMBERSHIP. [Chap. I, 

accordance with the rules of the Church. The 
Church must decide when her purity and in- 
fluence demand the expulsion of disorderly 
members from her communion. (Gen. Conf. 
Jour., 1848, p. 129.) 

5. "When several members of our Church 
withdraw in a body from our public and social 
meetings, and the oversight of the pastor, and 
appoint separate meetings for themselves, they 
are not to be considered as withdrawn from the 
Church, but they may be summoned, each sep- 
arately, to answer for neglect of duty and diso- 
bedience to the order of the Church. " No 
member of our Church can be pronounced with- 
drawn from the Church without at least his 
verbal consent, so as to preclude the member 
from Church privileges, or the right of trial if 
he desires it." — Gen. Conf. Jour., 1860, p. 428. 

6. If a member makes an application to with- 
draw, and after a few days expresses a desire 
to remain in the Church, if the withdrawal has 
not been announced, and no entry has been 
made on the Church books, it is optional with 
the Church either to declare him withdrawn, or 
to allow him to recall his request. But if the 
withdrawal has been consummated by the as- 



Sec. III.] WITHDRAWAL. 35 

sent of the Church, and the registry of the fact, 
it cannot be annulled by Church action. (Bp. 
Janes.) 

7. A member who refuses to attend to his 
duties, to meet in class, etc., does not by that act 
withdraw from the Methodist Episcopal Church. 
But such member is responsible to the Church 
for such violation of his Church covenant. 

8. When a minister desires to withdraw from 
the Methodist Episcopal Church, his request 
must be presented to the body to which he is 
responsible. When a superannuated preacher 
resides beyond the bounds of his Annual Con- 
ference, a presiding elder cannot give him a 
certificate of withdrawal. (Gen. Coxif. Jour., 
1864, p. 141.) 



36' THE CONFERENCES. [Chap. II, 



CHAPTER II. 

THE CONFERENCES. 

Section I. — Annual Conferences. 

1. The first Annual Conference in England 
was held at the Foundry in London, June, 1744, 
at which the following persons were present : — 
John Wesley, Charles Wesley, John Hodges, 
Rector of Wenvo, Henry Piers, Yicar of Bex- 
ley, Samuel Taylor, Yicar of Quinton, and 
John Meriton. The first Annual Conference in 
America was held in Philadelphia, June, 1773, 
at which the Rev. Thomas Rankin presided. 

2. Districts have existed not in name but in 
fact, since the organization of our Church. Mr. 
Wesley desired that " no more elders should be 
ordained, in the first instance, than were abso- 
lutely necessary, and that the work on the con- 
tinent should be divided between them in re- 
spect to the duties of their office." The Gen- 
eral Conference, at first, elected only twelve 
elders to administer the ordinances of the 
Church; but Bishop Asbury and the District 



Sec. I.] ANNUAL CONFERENCES. 37 

Conferences afterward enlarged the number, 
and gave them the name by which they were 
afterward designated. This proceeding subse- 
quently received the approbation of Mr. Wesley 
and of the General Conference of 1792. 

3. The term Circuit was first introduced into 
the Minutes of the conference in the year 1746. 
At that time a circuit embraced some fifteen or 
twenty societies which lay around some princi- 
pal society. At each conference two, three, or 
four preachers were appointed to each circuit, 
and the one having the charge was denominated 
an Assistant, because he assisted Mr. Wesley 
in superintending the societies, and the other 
preachers were called Helpers. In England the 
name Circuit is now generally retained, and ap- 
plied to the stations of the preachers whose 
spheres of ministerial labor do not extend far 
beyond the limits of the town in which they 
reside, as well as to those which spread over a 
much larger space. In this country, in collo- 
quial language, the term station is applied to a 
charge embracing only a single worshipping con- 
gregation, and circuit to a more extended field ; 
but, in the Discipline, these terms are frequently 
used interchangeably. When a society becomes, 
in common parlance, a Station, it loses no title 



88 THE CONFEBENCES. Chap. II, 

to funded property which it held while it was 
called a Circuit, nor do Circuit Preachers form 
a different class of beneficiaries from those who 
are termed Stationed Preachers. 

4. A Bishop sustains the relation of Mode- 
rator to the General Conference. He repre- 
sents no section or interest of the Church ; he 
can claim no right to introduce motions, to make 
speeches, or to cast votes on any question. As 
president, he can neither form rules nor decide 
law questions in the General Conference ; and, 
on mere questions of order, there is an appeal 
from his decision to the deliberative body. (Bish- 
ops' Address to Gen. Conf., 1840; Bishop Hed- 
ding on Discipline, p. 10.) 

'No one of the bishops is specially designated 
as the president of the General Conference. 
The order of presiding is a matter of mutual 
agreement among the bishops. He who occu- 
pies the chair 'for the time being is the legal 
president of the conference. 

By a conventional arrangement among the 
bishops, there is properly but one official presi- 
dent of an annual conference, though other 
bishops may preside and assist in all the duties 
of the chair. No bishop has a right to 
make a motion, to vote, or to make speeches 



Sec. L] ANNUAL CONFERENCES. 39 

on controverted questions in an annual 
conference. 

5. The peculiar prerogatives of the president 
of an annual conference are the following : 

a. He may adjourn the conference over which 
he presides when, in his judgment, all the busi- 
ness prescribed by the Discipline shall have 
been transacted, provided that the conference 
shall be allowed to sit, at least, a week, and 
also provided, that if an exception shall be 
taken, by the conference, to his so adjourning 
it, the exception shall be entered upon the 
journals of the conference. (Gen. Conf. Jour., 
1840, p. 121.) 

b. The bishop must decide all questions of 
law involved in proceedings pending in an 
annual conference, and all questions of or- 
der raised in the ordinary business of the con- 
ference. On a question of law, an appeal may 
be taken, either by the conference as a body, or 
by any member of it, to the next ensuing Gen- 
eral Conference. The decision of the president, 
however, must be made the basis of action, for 
the time being, by the conference. On a ques- 
tion of order, an appeal may be taken at the 
time to the annual conference. 

c. The president of an annual, a district, or 



40 THE CONFERENCES. [Chap. II, 

a quarterly conference has the right to de- 
cline putting the question on a motion, resolu- 
tion, or report, when, in his judgment, such 
motion, resolution, or report does not relate to 
the proper business of the conference, Pro- 
vided, that in all such cases, the president, on 
being required to do so, shall have inserted in 
the journals of the conference his refusal to 
put the question on such motion, resolution, or 
report, with his reasons for so refusing; and 
also provided, that when an annual conference 
shall differ from the president on a question of 
law, it shall have a right to record its dissent on 
the journals, provided there shall be no dis- 
cussion on the subject. (Gen. Conf. Jour., 1840, 
p. 121.) 

d. The following decisions were made by the 
General Conference of 1860 ; 

" 1. If a motion is made in an annual or quar- 
terly conference, which, if passed, would be a 
positive violation of Discipline, should the pres- 
ident put the motion and allow the Discipline 
to be set aside, or what should he do ? . 

" Ans. He should refuse to put the motion. 

" The president of an annual or a quarterly 
meeting Conference has the right to decline 
putting the question on a motion, resolution, or 
report, when, in his judgment, such motion, 



Sec. L] ANNUAL CONFERENCES. 41 

resolution, or report does not relate to the proper 
business of the conference," {Gen. Conf. Jour., 
1840, p. 121.) 

This decision was made before the law for 
district conferences was enacted, but by parity 
of reason the rule also applies to the president 
of a district conference. 

" 2. When a bishop presiding in an annual 
conference decides a question of law by request 
of the conference, if a motion is made which 
would reverse the decision of the bishop, under 
the plea that the conference has the right to 
apply the law in the case, should the motion be 
put, and the conference be allowed to set 
aside the law under the pretense of applying 
it? 

" Arts. No. When a question of law has 
been decided by a bishop in an annual confer- 
ence that decision cannot be reversed or set 
aside except by the action of the ensuing Gen- 
eral Conference, to which body an appeal may 
be taken by the annual conference or by any 
member thereof." — Gen. Conf. Jour. y 1860, 
p. 297. 

6. No preacher having the charge of a circuit 
is authorized to divide, or in any way to lessen, 
the circuit. (Gen. Conf., 1816.) 



42 THE CONFERENCES. [Chap. IT, 

7. In regard to episcopal decisions, the Gen- 
eral Conference has adopted the following sen- 
timents : 

" Whereas, under the rale which says, ' A 
bishop shall decide all questions of law in an 
annual conference, subject to an appeal to the 
General Conference, 5 a custom has grown up of 
evoking episcopal decisions touching the admin- 
istration of the Discipline outside of the annual 
conferences; and, 

" Whereas, the opinions of the bishops, given 
in writing in the intervals of the annual confer- 
ences, are sometimes regarded as decisions of 
law, binding in the administration of Discipline ; 
and, 

" Whereas, these decisions and opinions are 
sometimes in conflict with each other, springing 
up from questions growing out of peculiar and 
ever-varying circumstances ; and, 

" Whereas, it is the judgment of this Confer- 
ence that the use made of the rule aforesaid was 
not intended by the General Conference which 
established it, that General Conference intend- 
ing it for the administration of the conferences, 
and not of the individual pastors ; therefore, 

"1. Resolved, That every administrator of 
the Discipline is responsible to the proper au- 
thorities for his administration of the rules of 



Sec. I.] ANNUAL CONFERENCES. 43 

§ 

the Church, and may not plead episcopal de- 
cisions as law. 

" 2. Resolved, That while the counsels of our 
superintendents are to be highly respected, and 
to be considered of great value in the adminis- 
tration of Discipline, their decisions are not to 
be regarded as having the force of law outside 
of the annual conferences." — Gen. Conf. Jour., 
1860, p. 428. 

" That we deem it inexpedient for a Bishop 
presiding at an annual conference to render 
formal decisions of questions of law presented 
on fictitious cases, and where the subject is not 
involved in the proceedings pending, nor should 
any such decisions be entered upon the confer- 
ence journals." — Gen. Conf. Jour., 1868. 

8. The conference year commences when the 
appointments are announced in the annual con- 
ference, and continues until the announcing of 
the appointments at the next ensuing confer- 
ence. (Bishop Waugh.) 

. 9. The General Conference of 1860 has given 
the following instructions in regard to special 
transfers : 

" 1. Resolved, That while we cheerfully ac- 
cord to our excellent superintendents their con- 



44 THE CONFERENCES. [Chap. II, 

stitutional right to supply the general work by 
transfers when necessary, we respectfully request 
that transfers may never be made solely at the 
personal solicitation of the preacher desiring to 
be transferred, nor yet to gratify the wishes of 
any one charge between whom and the proposed 
appointee negotiations may have been previously 
made. 

" 2. Resolved, That negotiations for special 
appointments in the pastoral work between in- 
dividual ministers and societies, prior to the 
exercise of the regular appointing power in our 
Church, is contrary to our economy and inju- 
rious to our itinerant system." — Gen. Conf. 
Jour., 1860, p. 398. 

10. All the preachers, whether in full con- 
nection or on probation, are required to be 
present at the annual conference and undergo 
the required examinations. If a local deacon 
or elder, or if a minister from another evangel- 
ical denomination, join the traveling connection, 
he is required to pass the four years' course of 
study. 

11. " Can a traveling preacher, during the 
interval of the annual conference of which lie 



Sec. I] ANNUAL CONFERENCES. 45 

is a member, be suspended for refusing to at- 
tend to the work assigned him ? 

" Ans. It is the duty of a presiding elder 
i to take charge of all the elders and deacons in 
his district, 5 and to Q take care that every part 
of our Discipline be enforced.' Now our Dis- 
cipline provides (^[ 245, 251) that no elder or 
deacon ' who ceases to travel without the con- 
sent of the annual conference, certified under 
the hand of the president of the conference, ex- 
cept in case of sickness, debility, or other un- 
avoidable circumstances, shall on any account 
exercise the peculiar functions of his office, or 
even be allowed to preach among us. 5 Hence, 
any elder or deacon who refuses to go to the 
work assigned him (' except in cases of sick- 
ness, 5 etc.) may be suspended ' in the interval 
of the annual conference ; 5 but the ' final deter- 
mination in all such cases is with 5 the confer- 
ence."—^. Conf. Jou?\, 1860, p. 297. 

12. The General Conference ordered that in 
receiving preachers into full connection the ex- 
amination of the candidates before the confer- 
ence shall precede the action of conference in 
admitting them to full connection and elect- 
ing them to orders, (Gen, Conf, Jour., p. 
224.) 



46 THE CONFERENCES. [Chap. II, 

13. When a member of an annual conference, 
in good standing, demands a location, the con- 
ference is obliged to grant it to him. But if 
the member is indebted to the Book Concern, 
the conference may require him to secure the 
debt before they grant his request. (Rec. Gen. 
Conf., 1840, p. 107.) 

14. The location of a traveling preacher is to 
be reckoned from the final adjournment of the 
conference session, and not from the particular 
time that the vote of location is taken. 

15. A located preacher is entitled to a certifi- 
cate of location under the hand of the president 
of the conference. (Gen. Conf. Jour., 1848, p. 98.) 

16. A preacher who has been located, either 
with or without his consent, may, at any session, 
be readmitted to his former standing, at the 
option of a majority of the conference. 



17. But if a preacher has withdrawn from an 
annual conference, he cannot again be read- 
mitted without the usual probation, though he 
has returned to the Church, and his credentials 
have been restored to him. 



Sec. I.] ANNUAL CONFERENCES. 47 

18. Properly accredited ministers from any 
branch of the Methodist Church, or from any 
Church agreeing with us in doctrine, may on 
their credentials be as once received into full 
connection in the traveling ministry, provided 
they give satisfaction to an annual conference 
of their literary qualifications and of their will- 
ingness to conform to our Church government 
and usages. (Gen. Conf. Jour., 1864, pp. 240, 
241, 417.) 

19. Ministers from other evangelical Churches 
must be recommended by some quarterly con- 
ference, according to our usages, before they 
can be received on trial in the traveling con- 
nection. 

20. A superannuated preacher possesses all 
the rights, powers, and prerogatives of an ef- 
fective preacher in an annual conference. He 
may serve on any committee, vote on any ques- 
tion, and represent an annual conference as 
a delegate in the General Conference. And 
whether he resides within or without the bounds 
of the conference of which he is a member, he 
is entitled to a seat in the quarterly conference, 
and to ail the privileges of membership in the 
Church where he resides 



48 THE CONFERENCES. [Chap. IT, 

21. A preacher on trial cannot sustain a su- 
perannuated relation. 

22. A bishop is not authorized to continue a 
preacher in a circuit or station where he has 
held a pastoral relation over a majority of the 
charge for three consecutive years, even though 
the station may be divided into two or more 
circuits or stations. (Gen. Conf. Jour., 1836, 
p. 473.) 

23. Every preacher belonging to the travel- 
ing connection, unless he sustains a superan- 
nuated relation, or is under arrest of character, 
must receive an appointment to some station 
recognized by our economy. Previously to 1836, 
preachers were frequently returned on the Min- 
utes as being left without an appointment at 
their own request ; but the General Conference 
has forbidden the practice, except in the case of 
supernumerary preachers, 

24. Preachers on trial who have been em- 
ployed " two successive years in the regular 
itinerant work on circuits, in stations, or in our 
institutions of learning," and have satisfactorily 
passed the prescribed examinations, are eligible 
to admission into full connection. 



Sec. L] ANNUAL CONFERENCES. 49 

25. While a preacher is on trial the annual 
conference alone has jurisdiction over the ques- 
tion of his authority to preach, and his continu- 
ance on trial is equivalent to a renewal of his 
license to preach, (Discipline, •([ 203 ;) but if 
accused of crime, he is accountable to the quar- 
terly conference of the circuit on which he trav- 
els. (Discipline, f 331.) 

26. When an annual conference requests a 
superintendent to appoint a preacher to a lit- 
erary institution, it does not render it obligatory 
upon the bishop to comply with the request. 
(Gen. Conf. Jour., 1840, p.' 165.) 

" 27. When a preacher is transferred from 
one conference to another his rights, privileges, 
arid responsibilities in the conference to which 
he is transferred shall date from the date of his 
transfer, unless it be especially provided other- 
wise by the bishop by whom the transfer is 
made. 

" But it will not be lawful for him to vote 
twice on the same constitutional question, or be 
counted twice in the same year as the basis of 
the election of delegates to the General Confer- 
ence, nor vote for delegates to the General 



50 THE CONFERENCES. [Chap, it, 

Conference in any conference where he is not 
counted as a part of the basis of representa- 
tion."—^. Conf. Jour., I860, p. 364. 



Section II. — District Conferences. 

1. District conferences are to be held in 
those districts, and in those only, in which the 
quarterly conferences of a majority of the cir- 
cuits and stations shall have approved the law 
creating district conferences ; which approval 
must be expressed by asking the presiding elder 
to convene a district conference according to 
the provisions of the law. After such approval 
it ^becomes the duty of the presiding elder to 
convene a district conference, and thereafter it 
will not be lawful for any quarterly conference 
in which a district conference shall be held to 
exercise any of the powers belonging to the 
district conference. 

2. District conferences are composed of all 
the traveling and local preachers, the exhorters, 
the district stewards, and the Sunday-school 
superintendents of the district. If there shall 
be two or more superintendents in any circuit 
or station, then the quarterly conference of that 
circuit or station shall determine which super- 



Sec. II.] DISTRICT CONFERENCES. 51 

intendent shall be a member of the district 
conference. 

3. The district conference meets twice in each 
conference year, the first meeting to be held in 
the early part of the year, and the second near 
its close. The presiding elder appoints both 
the time and place for the meeting held first 
after the approval of the law in any given 
district; and thereafter he appoints the time, 
and the district conference the place, of its sub- 
sequent meetings. 

4. The presiding elder is the president of the 
district conference ; but in his absence the con- 
ference elects its own president by ballot from 
among the traveling elders. 

5. The district conference takes cognizance 
of all the local preachers and exhorters in the 
district, and inquires respecting the gifts, labors, 
and usefulness of each by name, and arranges 
at each meeting a plan of appointments for them 
until the next meeting of the conference. The 
district conference also hears complaints against 
local preachers, and tries, suspends, deprives of 
ministerial office and credentials, expels or ac- 



52 THE CONFERENCES. [Chap. II, 

quits, any local preacher against whom charges 
may be preferred, 

6. The district conference has authority to 
license local preachers, and to recommend to 
the annual conference local preachers as suitable 
candidates for deacon's and elder's orders, and 
for admission on trial in the traveling connec- 
tion ; but the district conference may not so 
license or recommend any person without the 
recommendation of the quarterly conference, or 
of the leaders' and stewards' meeting of the cir- 
cuit or station of which he is a member. And 
in all cases the candidate must pass a satisfac- 
tory examination in doctrine and discipline. 

7. While the authority to license local preach- 
ers belongs exclusively to the district conferences 
in districts within which they are held, yet the 
power to renew such license annually has not 
been given to the district conferences, and there- 
fore remains with the respective quarterly con- 
ferences. 

8. It is the duty of the district conference to 
inquire if the collections for the benevolent in- 
stitutions of the Church are properly attended 
to in all the circuits and stations, and to adopt 



Sec. III.] QUARTERLY CONFERENCES. 53 

suitable measures for promoting their success ; 
to inquire into the condition of the Sunday- 
schools in the district, and adopt suitable meas- 
ures for insuring their success ; to inquire 
respecting opportunities for missionary and 
Church extension enterprises within the district, 
and to take measures for the occupation of any 
neglected portions of its territories by mission 
Sunday-schools and appointments for public 
worship; and to take the general oversight of 
all the temporal and spiritual affairs of the dis- 
trict, subject to the provisions of the Discipline. 



Section III. — Quarterly Conferences. 

1. It is uncertain at what time quarterly 
conferences were introduced into our economy, 
but it is known that they were held at a very 
early period. The Large Minutes were first 
published in 1763, in which it is declared to be 
one of the numerous duties of the assistant to 
hold quarterly meetings, and diligently inquire 
therein into the spiritual and temporal state of 
each society. At a very early date Mr. Wesley 
adopted the plan of quarterly visitations of the 
classes, at which he inquired into the religious 
state of each individual, and gave suitable pas- 
toral advice, and renewed the certificate of 



54 • THE CONFERENCES. [Chap. II, 

membership by giving each a society ticket. 
The visitations were so arranged as to terminate 
with the four quarter-days in the national cal- 
endar ; and the quarterly meetings of the cir- 
cuits were appointed to be held on those days, 
or as near as practicable. 

2. The powers of the quarterly conference are 
various, and, as detailed in this section, and as 
set forth in ^[ 128-137 of the Discipline, they 
are powers all of which may be exercised by any 
quarterly conference which does not belong to a 
district within which a district conference is held 
in pursuance of the provision of the Discipline 
in the premises. Some of the powers hitherto 
belonging to quarterly conferences have been 
transferred from the quarterly conferences to 
the district conferences in cases where such dis- 
trict conferences are held ; and the powers thus 
transferred may not thenceforth be exercised 
by the quarterly conferences. In all other cases 
the powers of the quarterly conferences remain 
as heretofore provided. 

3. The quarterly conference is a court hold- 
ing original jurisdiction over accused local eld- 
ers, deacons, and preachers, and of preachers 
on trial in the traveling connection, and a court 






Sec. III.] QUARTERLY CONFERENCES. 55 

of appeals to the laity. It is a council to con- 
stitute and appoint local preachers, to examine 
their moral and Christian characters, to renew 
their license annually, and to recommend suit- 
able persons for ministerial orders, according to 
the provisions of the Discipline. It holds, also, 
a supervisory relation to the various financial 
and benevolent enterprises of the Church. It 
is authorized "to hear complaints" against the 
official acts and delinquencies of local preachers, 
stewards, and exhorters, and on application of 
the preacher in charge it has authority to order 
a new trial of an accused member. 

4. The quarterly conference is composed of 
all the traveling and local preachers, exhorters, 
stewards, class leaders, and trustees of the 
-Churches of the circuit or station, and of such 
members of the annual conference as the bishop 
may designate, who, as agents, editors, etc., 
sustain no pastoral relation to any society, and 
of such superannuated preachers as reside on the 
circuit ; the first male superintendents of our 
Sunday-schools, said superintendents and trust- 
ees being members of our Church, and approved 
by the quarterly conference. All members of a 
quarterly conference, not under charges, have 
equal rights to speak and vote in a quarterly 



56 THE CONFERENCES, [Chap. II, 

conference, except on questions affecting their 
own standing. 



5. The presiding elder, and in his absence 
any elder of the same district whom he may 
appoint, and in case no such appointee be pres- 
ent, the preacher in charge, shall preside in the 
quarterly conference. 

6. When two circuits are united for quarterly 
meetings, the secretary of the quarterly con- 
ference should record the entire doings of the 
conference, and the recording steward of each 
circuit take a copy of such records only as relate 
to his respective circuit. 

7. The quarterly conference is authorized to 
inquire into the condition of each school or 
society within the bounds of the circuit or sta- 
tion, and to remove any superintendent who 
may prove to be unworthy or inefficient. 

8. A quarterly conference has no authority to 
amend or reject a Sabbath-school report pre- 
sented by the preacher in charge, according to 
the provisions of the Discipline ; but the report 
should be entered upon the journals of the con- 



Sec. III.] QUARTERLY CONFERENCES. 57 

ference without the question, being put on its 
adoption . 

9. The presiding elder must appoint the time 
of holding a quarterly conference. If another 
person appoints it without his knowledge, it is 
not a legal session, even if a preacher in charge 
presides in it. 

10. A quarterly conference may adjourn from 
time to time to finish any pending business ; 
but it cannot adjourn to a distant day to make 
up new r business which would properly belong 
to a future quarterly conference, (Hedding on 
Disc, p. 36.) 

11. The president of a quarterly conference 
has the right to adjourn the conference over 
which he presides when in his judgment all the 
business prescribed by the Discipline to such 
conference shall have been transacted. But if 
an exception be taken by the conference to his 
so adjourning it, the exception must be entered 
upon the journals of the conference. (Gen. Conf. 
Jour., 1840, p. 121.) 

12. " All ministers having charge of circuits 
or stations should faithfully enforce the pro- 



58 THE CONFERENCES. [Chap. II, 

visions of the Discipline on the subject of 
temperance, and every presiding elder should 
make it a subject of inquiry in every quarterly 
conference." — Gen. Gonf. Jour., I860, p. 395. 

13. The members present at any regularly 
called quarterly conference constitute a legal 
quorum for the transaction of business. A tie 
vote, in a quarterly conference, decides the 
question in the negative, as the presiding elder 
is not entitled to vote. 

14. The minutes of a quarterly conference 
must be read and approved at the close of the 
session when they are taken : they cannot be 
approved at any subsequent session. The un- 
recorded action of the conference is of no legal 
authority. 



Section TV. — Leaders and Stewards' Meetings. 

1. Mr. Wesley gives the following account of 
the origin of class-leader's and leaders' meetings. 
He had long been perplexed because he had no 
means of learning the private character of many 
of his members. " At length," says he, " while 
we were thinking of quite another thing, we 
struck upon a method for which we have had 



Sec. IV.] LEADERS' MEETINGS. 59 

cause to bless God ever since. I was talking 
with several of the society in Bristol (Feb. 15, 
1742) concerning the means of paying the debts 
there, when one stood up and said, ' Let every 
member of the society give a penny a week till 
all are paid.' Another answered, ' But many 
of them are poor, and cannot afford to do it.' 
' Then,' said he, ' put eleven of the poorest with 
me, and if they can give anything, well ; I will 
call on them weekly ; and if they can give 
nothing, I will give for them as well as for my- 
self. And each of you call on eleven of your 
neighbors weekly, receive what they give, and 
make up what is wanting.' It was done. In a 
while some of them informed me they found 
such and such a one did not live as he ought. 
It struck me immediately — ' This is the thing, 
the very thing we haye wanted so long.' I 
called together all the leaders of the classes, (so 
we used to term them and their companies,) 
and desired that each would make particular 
inquiry into the behavior of those whom he 
saw weekly. They did so. Many disorderly 
walkers were detected. Some turned from the 
evil of their ways ; some were put away from 
us. Many saw it with fears, and rejoiced unto 
God with reverence. As soon as possible the 
game method was used in London and all other 



60 THE CONFERENCES. [Chap. II, 

places." The institution of weekly leaders' 
meetings followed of course. 

2. Leaders and stewards' meetings, from their 
first institution, have been composed of the 
traveling preachers stationed in the circuit or 
station, and the stewards and class-leaders of 
the charge. The Discipline does not recognize 
the office of assistant class-leaders. Though a 
member may be requested to aid a leader in the 
discharge of his duties, yet this relation does not 
entitle him to a seat in the leaders' meeting, or 
in the quarterly conference. 

3. To define specifically the duties and pre- 
rogatives of class-leaders and of leaders' meet- 
ings, Mr. Wesley published the following rules 
in 1771 : " That it may be more easily discerned 
whether the members of our societses are work- 
ing out their own salvation, they are divided 
into little companies called classes. One person 
in each of these is styled the leader. It is his 
business, (1.) To see each person in his class 
once a week ; to inquire how their souls pros- 
per ; to advise, reprove, comfort, or exhort them. 
(2.) To receive what they are willing to give 
toward the expenses of the society. And, (3.) 
To meet the assistants and the stewards once a 



Sec. IV.] LEADERS' MEETINGS. 61 

week. This is the whole and sole business of a 
leader or any number of leaders. But it is 
common for the assistant, in any place where 
several leaders are met together, to ask their 
advice as to any thing which concerns either 
the temporal or spiritual welfare of the so- 
ciety." 

No duties are so specifically assigned to the 
leaders' meeting as to require their being held 
in all our circuits and stations ; yet when they 
are held monthly, they are found to be emi- 
nently adapted to promote the interests of the 
Church. 

The ordinary business of a leaders and stew- 
ards' meeting embraces the following items, 
(Discipline, T 260) : 

a. That the leaders have an opportunity " to 
inform the minister of any that are sick, or of 
any that walk disorderly and will not be re- 
proved." 

b. That the pastor ma} 7 examine the several 
class-books, and ascertain the Christian walk 
and character of each member of the Church, 
and learn what members of the flock especially 
need his watch-care and counsel. 

c. To inquire into the religious state of all 
persons on trial, and ascertain who can be rec- 
ommended by the leader for admission into 



62 THE CONFERENCES. [Chap. II, 

full connection, and who should be discontin- 
ued. 

d. To examine the several leaders respecting 

their " method of leading their classes." "Let 
this be done with all possible exactness at least 
once a quarter." — Discipline. 

e. To recommend suitable persons to be li- 
censed as exhorters and local preachers. 

f. That the leaders may " pay the stewards 
what they have received of their several classes 
in the week preceding. And also to hear re- 
ports from the stewards. 

4. Class-leaders, as such, are responsible only 
to the preacher in charge, who may remove 
them at pleasure. 



Sec. I.] PRESIDING ELDERS. 63 



CHAPTEE III. 

. MINISTERS. 
Section I.— Presiding Elders. 

1. The office of presiding elder is coeval with 
the Methodist Episcopal Church, though the 
name was not given to the office until 1789, 
and its duties were not specifically defined until 
1792. 

2. The origin and nature of the office are 
thus given by Dr. Coke and Bishop Asbury: 
" When Mr. Wesley drew up a plan of govern- 
ment for our Church in America, he desired 
that no more elders should be ordained, in the 
first instance, than were absolutely necessary, 
and that the work on the continent should be 
divided between them, in respect to the duties 
of their office. The General Conference accord- 
ingly elected twelve elders for the above pur- 
poses. Bishop Asbury and the district confer- 
ences afterward found that this order of men 
was so necessary that they agreed to enlarge the 
number, and give them the name by which they 



64: MINISTERS. [Chap. II r, 

are at present called, and which is perfectly 
Scriptural, though it is not the word used in 
our translation ; and this proceeding afterward 
received the approbation of Mr. Wesley. In 
1792 the General Conference, equally conscious 
of the necessity of having such an office among 
us, not only confirmed every thing that Bishop 
Asbury and the district conferences had done, 
but also drew up, or agreed to, the present sec- 
tion for the explanation of the nature and duties 
of the office." — Coke and Asbury 's Notes on the 
Discipline. 

3. The presiding elder is authorized and re- 
quired to decide all questions of law involved in 
proceedings pending in a quarterly conference ; 
but an appeal may be taken from his decision 
to the president of the next annual conference. 
If the decision of the president of the confer- 
ence is not satisfactory, either party may take 
an appeal from this decision to the General 
Conference. 

4. A presiding elder cannot administer dis- 
cipline in any society where there is a regularly 
constituted pastor. If there is no preacher in 
charge, he may discharge all the peculiar duties 
of the pastorate. 



Sea I.J PRESIDING ELDERS. 65 

5. A presiding elder has no authority to per- 
mit a traveling preacher to leave his appropri- 
ate work. If a preacher leaves his charge, the 
responsibility rests upon himself alone, and he 
must answer it at the annual conference. (Gen. 
Conf. Jour., 1840, p. 105.) 

6. A presiding elder may remove a preacher 
from his charge, in the interval of conference, 
and assign him another station within the limits 
of his district ; but he cannot remove him be- 
yond the bounds of his district : his powers are 
wholly restricted to these limits. Nor can a 
presiding elder change a preacher in his district 
from a charge to which he has been appointed 
by the bishop, and appoint him to another 
charge to which he could not be legally ap- 
pointed by the bishop. (Discipline, T 234.) 

7. When superannuated and local preachers 
are employed in the pastoral work by a presid- 
ing elder, the law of limitation of time applies 
to them as to effective men appointed by a 
bishop. (Discipline, T 234.) 

8. Presiding elders are superintendents of the 
domestic missions within their bounds severally, 
and are required to make a quarterly report to 



66 MINISTERS. . [Chap. Ill, 

the Corresponding Secretary of the Missionary 
Society of the work under their superintend- 
ence ; and if they cannot visit each part of their 
mission personally, the missionary must report 
to them quarterly by mail. 

9. In case of application as a missionary to 
preach the gospel in a foreign mission, the pre- 
siding elder of the applicant should furnish the 
bishop having the authority to appoint testimo-, 
nials on the following particulars : — 

a. Character of the applicant's piety. 

b. Manner and effectiveness of his preaching. 

c. His natural talents and temper, and the 
probability of his working happily with others. 

d. His judgment, discretion, and common 
sense. 

e. The extent and qualities of his education. 
f. His habits of improving time, and of seiz- 
ing opportunities of usefulness. 

g. The habits of economy of himself and his 
family. 

h. His facility of acquiring influence over 
others. 

i. His aptness in acquiring languages. 

j. His personal appearance, manners, and ad- 
dress. 

&. His character, habits 5 health, and eonsti- 



Sec. L] PRESIDING- ELDERS. 67 

tution, in view of his particular field. (Mission- 
ary Manual, p. 7.) 



10. Subjects for correspondence of superin- 
tendents, especially with reference to foreign 
missions and missions among the Indians : — 

a. The peculiar customs of the people among 
whom they labor. 

b. Their language, habits, laws, and govern- 
ment. 

c. Their religious views and worship. 

d. The degree and character of their civili- 
zation. 

e. Their views and feelings with respect to 
Christianity, and its progress among them, if 
they have made any. 

f. Account of particular conversions and ex- 
periences. (Miss. Manual, p. 17.) 

11. When an elder is appointed or elected 
president of an annual conference, he has the 
same prerogatives as to presiding in conference, 
and making out Ihe appointments, as a bishop; 
but such appointment confers no prerogative, 
except those specified above, and these, only 
during the session of the conference. 



"68 MINISTEKS. [Chap. Ill, 

Section II. — Preacher in Charge. 

1. A preacher in charge is one who has the 
pastoral care of a circuit or station, by the ap- 
pointment of the regularly constituted authority 
of the Church. He may be an elder, a deacon, 
an unordained preacher on trial, or a local 
preacher employed by the presiding elder to 
supply some vacancy ; all appointed by compe- 
tent authority possess full and equal powers as 
preachers in charge. 

2. The duties of a preacher in charge are, to 
take the oversight of the junior preachers on 
his circuit, if there be any ; to renew the love- 
feast tickets quarterly; to hold watch-nights 
and love-feasts ; to permit no love-feast to last 
longer than one hour and a half; to appoint 
prayer-meetings wherever it is practicable ; to 
appoint a fast in every society on the circuit the 
Friday preceding each quarterly meeting, and 
to make a memorandum of it on all the class- 
papers : to read the rules of the society, with 
the aid of the other preachers, once a year in 
every congregation, and once a quarter in every 
society; to enforce vigorously, but calmly, all 
the rules of the society ; to take a regular cata- 
logue of the societies in towns and cities as they 



Sec. II.] PEEACHEES IK CHAEGE. 69 

live in the streets ; to give a note of recom- 
mendation to members removing from the cir- 
cuit, and to enjoin upon those removing to 
obtain a recommendation ; to recommend de- 
cency and cleanliness every-where ; to appoint 
a person to receive the quarterly collections in 
the classes ; to encourage the support of mis- 
sions, by forming societies and making collec- 
tions in such manner as the annual conference 
shall direct ; to provide for the diffusion of mis- 
sionary intelligence in the Church and congrega- 
tion ; to institute a mo'nthly missionary prayer- 
meeting or lecture in each society or church and 
congregation, wherever practicable, and to ap- 
point, aided by the Committee on Missions, 
missionary collectors; to lay before the quar- 
terly conference, at each quarterly meeting, a 
written statement of the number and state of 
the Sunday-schools in the circuit or station, and 
to report the same to the annual conference; to 
take an annual collection in each of the ap- 
pointments in behalf of the Sunday-School 
Union ; to form Sunday-schools in all our con- 
gregations where ten children can be collected 
for that purpose ; to form Bible classes ; to visit 
the schools as often as practicable, and to preach 
on the subject of Sunday-schools and religious 
instruction in each congregation at least once in 



70 MINISTERS. [Chap. Ill, 

six months ; to take up a collection or raise a 
subscription for the purchase and distribution 
of tracts ; to catechise the children in the Sun- 
day-school and at special meetings appointed 
for that purpose ; to hold quarterly meetings in 
the absence of the presiding elder ; to give an 
account of his circuit every quarter to his pre- 
siding elder ; to report at each quarterly meet- 
ing the names of those who have been received 
into the Church or excluded therefrom during 
the quarter ; also the names of those who have 
been received or dismissed by certificate, and 
of those who have died or have withdrawn from 
our Church ; to license proper persons to offi- 
ciate as exhorters ; to submit the application of 
all who desire a license as a local preacher to 
the society or leaders 5 meeting for a recom- 
mendation to the quarterly conference ; or to 
the quarterly conference for recommendation to 
the district conference ; to give a certificate of 
the official standing of a local preacher when 
applied to in case of removal ; to appoint and 
change leaders when he sees it necessary ; to 
nominate stewards for the confirmation of the 
quarterly conference ; to meet the stewards and 
leaders frequently ; to inspect the accounts of 
the stewards ; to recommend arbitration be- 
tween members when there is a dispute in 



Sec. II.j PKEACHERS IN CHARGE. 71 

reference to pecuniary affairs ; to appoint a 
committee to inspect the accounts, contracts, 
and circumstances of those members who fail in 
business or contract debts which they are not 
able to pay ; to call a member accused of non- 
payment of debt before a committee for investi- 
gation and settlement; to bring to trial and 
expel, according to Discipline, disorderly mem- 
bers ; to call local preachers who have failed in 
business before a committee ; to reprove local 
preachers guilty of indulging in improper 
tempers, words, or actions, and to call those 
accused of crime before an investigating com- 
mittee ; to report to the annual conference the 
number of Church members, number of deaths 
the past year, number of probationers, number 
of local preachers, number of adults baptized 
the past year, number of children baptized 
the past year, number of churches and their 
probable value, number of parsonages and their 
probable value, amount collecetd for superan- 
nuated preachers, amount collected for the Mis- 
sionary Society, amount collected for Church 
Extension, amount collected for the Sunday- 
School Union, number of officers and teachers, 
numbed of scholars, number of volumes in 
library ; to recommend to every^ class or society 
to raise a quarterly or animal subscription to ipest 



72 MINISTERS, [Chap. Ill, 

the current expenses of preaching the Gospel on 
the circuit, and to make up the allowance of 
tfie preachers; to appoint a person to receive 
the quarterly collection in the classes ; to take 
up a yearly collection, and, if expedient, a quar- 
terly one to make up the deficiencies at the 
annual conference ; to be collectors and re- 
ceivers of subscriptions, etc., for the Chartered 
Fund ; to supply the societies with books ; to 
leave his successor a particular account of the 
circuit, including an account of the subscribers 
for our periodicals ; to keep in a suitable book 
a faithful record of all the subscribers to our 
periodicals in his charge ; enter the date and 
amount of payments, and leave the book for 
his successor, and a note of the place where it 
is left on the plan of the circuit ; (see Gen. Conf. 
Jour., 1840, p. 117;) to appoint a board of 
trustees for holding Church property when 
necessary. 

3. The preacher in charge who is a member 
of an annual conference and a preacher on trial 
is responsible to the annual conference for his ad- 
ministration of discipline; and a local preacher 
in charge of a society is responsible to the quar? 
terly conference. 



Sec. III.] LOCAL PREACHERS. 73 



Section III. — Local Preachers. 

1. No one can be licensed as a local preacher 
until the following steps have been taken : — - 

a. He must be recommended to the quarterly 
conference by the leaders and stewards' meeting, 
or by the society of w T hich he is a member. It 
is not sufficient that he be recommended by the 
class of which he is a member. If the applica- 
tion for a license is to be made to a district 
conference, lie must be recommended by the 
leaders and stewards' meetings or by the quar- 
terly conference. 

h. He must pass a satisfactory examination on 
the subject of doctrines and discipline, 

2. The license of a local preacher is given by 
the quarterly or district conference, and not by 
the presiding elder ; and hence the license must 
be signed by the president of the conference, 
even if he is the person thus licensed. 

3. A quarterly conference may refuse to re- 
new the license of a local preacher without any 
impeachment of moral character, or finding any 
decrease of piety, talent, or usefulness. (Bishops 
Waugh and Janes.) 



74 MINISTERS. [Chap. Ill, 

4. Every license is given for one year, and for 
one year only ; and hence, in the interval of a 
conference year, a license cannot be revoked 
unless the quarterly or district conference, in 
due form, for cause assigned, deprive the local 
preacher of his ministerial office ; and if, at the 
expiration of the year, no conference action is 
taken upon it, the license becomes null and 
void. The question of renewal of licenses may 
be laid over as unfinished business until the 
next succeeding quarterly conference. If the 
license of a local preacher has expired, the 
same preliminary steps must be taken to regain 
it as if no license had ever been given. The 
fact that the proper body has formerly recom- 
mended a person for local preacher's license, 
would impose no obligation upon it to renew 
the recommendation if the question were again 
submitted to it. If a quarterly conference re- 
fuses to renew the license of a local preacher, a 
subsequent quarterly conference cannot recon- 
sider the question and grant a renewal. 

5. The license of a local preacher " must be 
renewed annually " by the quarterly confer- 
ence ; but by this expression is meant that it 
must be renewed in every ecclesiastical rather 
than in every calendar year. If, by the ar- 



Sec. III.] LOCAL PREACHERS. 75 

rangement of holding quarterly conferences, the 
time exceeds by a few weeks the calendar year, 
it does not render void the license. And if a 
local preacher should change his residence, and 
it should be found that no quarterly conference 
will be held for a short time after the calendar 
year has expired, the license will remain in full 
force until the question of renewal can be sub- 
mitted. 

6. An ordained local preacher is not required 
to have his credentials renewed annually. His 
ordination parchments authorize him to preach 
until they are surrendered, or made void by 
Church action or a violation of ordination vows. 
But ordained local preachers are required to 
pass an examination in the quarterly or district 
conference respecting their gifts, labors, and 
usefulness. Usage requires that this examina- 
tion be made annually. If a quarterly or dis- 
trict conference refuses to pass the character of 
a local elder or deacon for any alleged reason, 
the administrator should proceed to an investi- 
gation of the case, according to disciplinary rule. 

7. No local preacher can be employed by a 
presiding elder to travel, except in the interval 
of a quarterly conference, without a recommen- 



76 MTNISTEES. [Chap. Ill, 

dation of a quarterly conference. This recom- 
mendation may be the usual recommendation 
to an annual conference to be received into the 
traveling connection, or it may be a simple 
recommendation to be employed, for the time 
being, on a circuit or station. 

8. Every local preacher is amenable to the 
quarterly conference where he resides, or to the 
district conference, for his Christian character 
and the faithful performance of his ministerial 
office. If he has a pastoral charge, he must 
hold his Church relation in that charge. (Dis- 
cipline, 1" 301.) When a preacher is located, 
or discontinued by an annual conference, he is 
amenable to the quarterly conference of the cir- 
cuit where he had his last appointment. (Dis- 
cipline, % 298.) A preacher on trial is " ame- 
nable for his administration, when he is in 
charge, to his presiding elder and the annual con- 
ference. The presiding elder can correct his er- 
rors and reprove him, and change his relation by 
putting him under another preacher ; and the 
conference can discontinue him for that cause." 
— Bp. Iledding. 

9. The following prerequisites are necessary 
for the ordination of a local preacher : 



Sec. III.] LOCAL PREACHERS. 77 

a. He must have held a local preacher's li- 
cense for four consecutive vears before his ordi- 
nation. 

b. He must have been examined on the subject 
of doctrines and discipline. 

c. He must have received a " testimonial " 
from the quarterly or district conference, signed 
by the president and countersigned by the sec- 
retary. This testimonial must recommend the 
applicant as a suitable person to receive minis- 
terial orders. 

d. He must pass an examination of character 
before the annual conference, and obtain its ap- 
probation and election to orders. 

The candidate for elder's orders must either 
certify his belief in the doctrines and discipline 
of our Church, with his own signature, or make 
this profession before the conference. 

10. Wesieyan local preachers, from the Brit- 
ish, Irish, and Canada connections, when duly 
received by us, are eligible to deacon's and eld- 
er's orders at the same time they would have 
been if they had received their first license from 
us ; but this rule applies to none who come 
from other Christian Churches. 

11. The recommendations of quarterly or dis- 
trict conferences for the ordination or admission 



78 MINISTERS. [Chap. Ill, 

of local preachers into the traveling connection, 
on trial, are not valid after the next annual ses- 
sion for which they were given. 

12. The presiding elders and the preachers in 
charge are required so to arrange the appoint- 
ments, whenever it is practicable, as to give the 
local preachers regular and systematic employ- 
ment on the Sabbath ; but they cannot control 
the appointments of local preachers, unless they 
conflict with the plan of the circuit. 

13. If a local preacher desires to withdraw 
from the Methodist Episcopal Church, his re- 
quest should be presented to the quarterly or 
district conference to which he is amenable. 
The preacher in charge can take no other action 
in the premises than to present the request of 
the local preacher to the quarterly or district 
conference. 

Section IY. — Exhorters. 

1. Exhorters were recognized in our Church 
at a very early period. Mr. Wesley permitted 
none of his members to hold religious meetings 
without a special note from the assistant. 

2. The character of the office is sufficiently 
indicated by the name. It is not contemplated 



Sec. IT.] EXHORTERS. 79 

that an exhorter will attempt to preach, — form- 
ally announce a text, and confine himself to 
the elucidation of any particular passage of 
Scripture, — but that he will read a Scripture 
lesson, and make a practical application of its 
general sentiments to the people. This office, 
when faithfully discharged, may be rendered 
eminently serviceable in promoting the interests 
of the Church. 

3. It was required by the conference of 1779 
that " every exhorter and local preacher should 
go by the directions of the assistants, — where, 
and only where, they shall appoint." They 
should act under the general direction of the 
preacher in charge. Exhorters and local preach- 
ers should co-operate with the traveling preachers 
in carrying out the general plan of the circuit ; 
and should not hold meetings beyond the limits 
of the charge which recommended their license, 
unless they go forth to break up new ground, or 
are invited to another charge by the requisite 
authority of the Church. 

4. No person can be licensed as an exhorter 
who is not a member in full connection, or who 
has not been first recommended by the leaders 
and stewards' meeting, or by the class of which 



80 MINISTERS.. [Chap. Ill, 

he is a member where no leaders' meeting is 
held. 

5. All licenses to exhort are primarily given 
by the preacher in charge. Every exhorter, 
however, is subject to an annual examination 
of character in the quarterly conference ; and 
his license must annually be renewed by the 
presiding elder, or the preacher in charge, if 
approved by the quarterly conference. 

6. Exhorters are responsible for their official 
conduct to the quarterly conference ; but they 
cannot be deprived of membership without a 
trial, in due form, before a committee of the 
society of which they are members. 



Sec. L] NOTE OF RECOMMENDATION. 81 

4 



CHAPTER IV. 
CERTIFICATES AND LOVE-FEASTS. 

Section I. — Note of Recommendation. 

1. Every member in full connection, who re- 
moves to another circuit or station, is entitled 
to a note of recommendation, if charges are not 
preferred against him. 

2. If, in the judgment of the preacher in 
charge, there are sufficient reasons for withhold- 
ing a certificate, and the member is willing to 
be tried, the preacher is guilty of maladminis- 
tration unless he proceeds in the trial of such 
person. (Discipline, ^[ 281.) 

3. -No preacher is under obligation to give a 
certificate of membership to any member of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, unless said mem- 
ber wishes to remove his membership to another 
charge in the Methodist Episcopal Church ; 
though, as a matter of courtesy, he may give a 
recommendation to a member in good standing 



82 CERTIFICATES. [Chap. IT, 

who wishes to unite with another evangelical 
denomination. (Discipline, T 282.) 

4. Where pastoral charges are contiguous, 
there may be a change of Church relation from 
the one to the other without a change of resi- 
dence ; but if the member removes his residence 
beyond the reach of his privileges, and the over- 
sight of his pastor and leader, he must remove 
his membership by certificate, unless he has no 
access to Church privileges convenient to his 
new residence. 

5. When a member receives a certificate of 
membership from a preacher having charge of 
a circuit or station, he is responsible for his 
moral conduct, from the date of his certificate 
until he joins, to the society receiving him upon 
that certificate. (Gen. Conf. Jour., 1848, p. 126.) 
While the person holds the certificate in his own 
possession, he cannot claim any privileges in 
any society, or be brought to trial on any charge 
or complaint ; but the cause of religion and 
morality may require that the position of such 
a person be published to the world. 

6. The Discipline does not define any time 
beyond which a certificate becomes null and 



Sec. Lj NOTE OF RECOMMENDATION. 83 

void. The preacher in charge may receive a 
member on such certificate at any time, and 
hold him responsible, when he is received, for 
anything he may have done while he retained 
the certificate. (Bp. Morris.) 

7. It is not optional with the preacher whether 
he will receive a certificate from a member re- 
siding within the limits of his charge. If the 
certificate is drawn up in due form, and signed 
by the constituted authority, it must be honored. 
If it is known that the person presenting the 
certificate has committed a crime, it would serve 
as no bar to its reception : the certificate should 
be received, and the person be immediately put 
on trial in due form before the society, or a se- 
lect number of them. 

The General Conference of 1860 made the 
following decision : 

" Is a preacher in charge obliged to receive a 
properly authenticated certificate of a member 
when he is aware such reception would disturb 
the peace and quiet of the Church ? 

" Ans. It is the duty of the preacher to re- 
ceive all such certificates." — Gen. Conf. Jour., 
p. 298. 

In those extreme special cases in which a 
preacher refuses -to receive a letter, he must 



84 CERTIFICATES AND LOVE-FEASTS. [Chap. IV, 

justify his course, if complained of, before the 
annual conference. 

8. "When a member is expelled from the 
Church, and complaint is made against the 
administrator to his annual conference for mal- 
administration, and the conference decide that 
the person was expelled contrary to Discipline, 
what is the relation of the member expelled 
from the Church ? Does the act of the annual 
conference restore the character of the member, 
so that the charges on which he was expelled 
are so annulled that the preacher may legally 
give him a letter before said charges are dis- 
posed of by trial or withdrawn ? 

" Ans. The act of the annual conference does 
not restore his character, but simply his mem- 
bership; and when so restored he is placed in 
the position which he occupied before he was 
tried, that is, he is an accused member, and 
hence the preacher is not at liberty to give him a 
certificate of membership." — Gen. Conf. Jour. y 
1860, p. 298. 

9. Neither a class leader, nor anv other 
Church officer, except the preacher of the cir- 
cuit, can properly give a note of recommen 
dation. 



Sec. H] NOTE OF RECOMMENDATION. 85 

10. Certificates should not be given to those 
who withdraw from our Church, and do not 
intend to unite with any other evangelical 
Church. • 

11. Exhorters who change their residence 
should receive a note of recommendation, certi- 
fying their official relation ; and the presiding 
elder having the oversight of the charge to 
which they have removed may direct that the 
names of such exhorters be entered upon the 
records of the quarterly conference. 

12. To exercise a Christian watch-care over 
those who have removed among strangers, it is 
made the duty of the preacher in charge when 
he gives a letter to notify the pastor within 
whose bounds the persons having received such 
certificate shall have removed. (Discipline, 
T 281.) 

Section II. — Love-Feasts. 

1. Love-feasts, or agcvpce, were instituted in 
the apostolic age. The early Christians ate 
and drank together to signify their Christian 
love for each other, Before receiving their 
repast they washed their hands, and public 



86 LOVE-FEASTS. [Chap. IV, 

prayers were offered. The services were con- 
ducted by the bishop, or presbytqr. A portion 
of the sacred writings was read, and questions 
were proposed by the presiding officer respect- 
ing the lesson, which were answered by the 
assembly. Religious intelligence which had 
been received from other Churches was recited, 
and the acts of the martyrs, and letters from 
bishops and other eminent members of the 
Church, were read. Hymns and psalms were 
sung, and a collection was taken for the widow 
and the orphan, for the poor, the prisoner, and 
those who had suffered shipwreck. 

These seasons were peculiarly interesting to 
the hated and hunted disciples, and rendered 
doubly dear because their religious professions 
cut them off from associations with their early 
friends. "It is a custom," says Chrysostom, 
" most beautiful and beneficial ; for it is a sup- 
porter of love, a solace of poverty, a moderator 
of wealth, and a discipline of humility." 

2. Many of the rites which a guiding Provi- 
dence had made subservient to the interests of 
the Church in the days of her affliction began 
to be perverted when prosperity dawned upon 
her. Some hoped, by merely banqueting with 
the Church, to secure a moral qualification for 



Sec. L] NOTE OF RECOMMENDATION. 87 

admission into the sacred mysteries ; others 
supposed that by providing general agapce for 
their brethren, they would perform a merito- 
rious work which would personally exalt them 
in the sight of God and man ; and others gave 
occasion for pagans to suspect that the same 
immoralities were practiced in the Christian 
festivals that disgraced their own. For these 
and other reasons the love-feasts were discon- 
tinued, in the Western Church, by order of the 
Council of Carthage, A.D. 397. (See Tertullian's 
Apol. i, 39; Apostol. Constitution, Book II, 
c. 28 ; Kitto's Sac. Lit., Art. Agcvpce.) 

3. Mr. Wesley assigns the following reasons 
for their introduction into the Methodistic econ- 
omy : " In order to increase in them [persons 
in bands] a grateful sense of all his [God's] 
mercies, I desired that one evening in a quarter 
all the men in band, on a second all the women, 
would meet ; and on a third both men and 
women together ; that we might together ' eat 
bread,' as the ancient Christians did, ' with 
gladness and singleness of heart.' At these 
love-feasts (so we termed them, retaining the 
name as well as the thing, which was in use 
from the beginning) our food is only a little 
plain cake and water ; but we seldom return 



88 LOVE-FEASTS. [Chap. IV, 

from them without being fed. not only with the 
' meat which perisheth,' but with ' that which 
endureth to everlasting life.' " — Wesley' } s Works, 
vol. v, p. 183. 

4. The Discipline contemplates that members 
shall be admitted into love-feasts only by the 
presentation of tickets at the door ; but in new 
and sparse settlements it is found impracticable 
to carry this out in every instance. An essen- 
tial Methodist love-feast may be held without 
tickets. 

5. Members, probationers, and " well-dis- 
posed" baptized children of our members are 
entitled to admission into the love-feast of ttie 
circuit or station to which he belongs. (See Dis- 
cipline, 1840.) The term " strangers " embraces 
all other persons, whether members of other 
Christian communions or not. 

6. By established usage the presiding elder is 
entitled to hold the love-feast at the quarterly 
meeting. 



Sec. L] TBIAL OF MEMBERS. 89 



CHAPTEK Y. 

CHURCH TRIALS. 

Section I. — Trial of Members. 

1. We now enter upon a subject of the great- 
est importance to the pastor. The pastoral 
office is instituted to guard and promote the 
moral and religious character of the community. 
In the discharge of its functions counsel, ad- 
monition, and reproof must frequently be admin- 
istered, to establish the wavering and to reclaim 
the erring. It cannot be anticipated that those 
duties which call in question the rectitude of 
moral character can he discharged, with true 
Christian fidelity, without occasionally inflaming 
the bad passions of men, and, perhaps, subject- 
ing one's self to a legal prosecution ; and hence 
it is important to inquire how far the civil law 
recognizes the right of the full discharge of pas- 
toral duties. Our political constitutions guar- 
antee, in general terms, to every individual the 
natural and inalienable right to worship God 
according to the dictates of his own conscience, 
and promise that no subject shall be hurt, mo- 



90 CHUECH TEIALS. [Chap. V, 

lested, or restrained, in person, liberty, or estate, 
for his religious sentiments or professions, pro- 
vided that he does not disturb the public peace, 
nor infringe upon the rights of others. But 
these principles have been regarded as the basis 
of religious freedom, and the pledge that an en- 
lightened conscience shall not be violated, rather 
than the foe to those religious associations which 
bind its members to watch over each other's 
faith and practice with a godly jealousy. It is 
not pretended that Churches in this country 
possess, in a legal aspect, more power than 
other societies voluntarily organized, with such 
gradations of officers and judicatories as may 
subserve the moral and religious purposes of 
their organization. No civil disabilities nor 
pecuniary fines can be inflicted for the grossest 
violations of covenant vows ; yet the right of 
religious societies to inquire into the conduct of 
their members, to pass votes of expulsion, and 
record their proceedings against those who vio- 
late their covenant relations, has been fully 
recognized by the civil tribunal : nor will courts 
of justice inquire whether the conduct of the 
aggrieved member merited such discipline, pro- 
vided that the proceedings of the Church were 
according to the established usages of the de- 
nomination, and done in good faith without 



Sec. L] TRIAL OF MEMBERS. 91 

malice. And even if the case has been sub- 
mitted to a jury, on the trial of the indictment 
against the accused, and the evidence consid- 
ered insufficient by them to convict the accused 
of the crime in question, it serves as no bar to 
the religious society investigating the case de 
novo, according to its established regulations. 
(Ref. 3 Johnson, 183.) 

2. There are certain privileged communica- 
tions which, although they may inflict real in- 
jury upon personal reputation, yet do not 
subject a person to a criminal prosecution, on 
the ground that the good of society required the 
divulging of private infamy. The giving of the 
character of a servant to a person about to em- 
ploy him may be slanderous or otherwise, as it 
is done with honest intentions, or with a design 
to injure and defame. A representation made 
by members of a religious society to the pastor, 
or to a Church judicatory having power to hear, 
examine, and redress grievances, in respect to the 
ministry or laity, isprima facie a privileged com- 
munication. " The law concedes," says Judge 
Cowen, " the right of petition and remonstrance 
to a spiritual superior, when they are pre- 
sented with a view to redress. The proper 
channel being pursued, the Church member is 



92 CHUKCH TRIALS. [Chap. V, 

entitled to the same measure of protection as if 
he had, when writing the libel, been engaged in 
seeking the removal of an inferior officer at the 
hands of a superior, created by the constitution 
or the law."— 19 WenddU, 296 ; 23 WendaU, 
26 ; 2 Pick., 310. 

3. It is a principle clearly recognized by the 
Discipline of our Church, that no member, in 
full connection, can be dropped or expelled by 
the preacher in charge until the select commit- 
tee, or the society of which he is a member, 
declares, in due form, that he is guilty of the 
violation of some scriptural or moral principle, 
or some requisition of Church covenant. The 
restrictive rules guarantee, both to our ministers 
and members, the privilege of trial and of ap- 
peal ; and the General Conference has explicitly 
declared that " it is the right of every member 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church to remain in 
said Church, unless guilty of the violation of its 
rules ; and there exists no power in the minis- 
try, either individually or collectively, to de- 
prive any member of said right." — Gen. Conf. 
Jour., 1818, p. 73. The fact that the member 
is guilty of the violation of the rules of the 
Church must be formally proved before the 
body holding original jurisdiction in the case. 



Sec. L] TEIAL OF MEMBERS. 93 

If the administrator personally knows that the 
charges are substantially true, it does not au- 
thorize him to remove the accused member. 
The law recognizes no member as guilty until 
the evidence of guilt is duly presented to the 
proper tribunal, and the verdict is rendered. 

4:. The mode of removing unworthy members, 
in former times, was very different from the one 
now practiced. At every quarterly visitation 
Mr. Wesley gave a ticket to each member 
bearing the member's name upon it. This 
ticket was a symbol, or tessera, as the ancients 
termed such, denoting that the person holding 
it was recognized as a member of the society. 

" These," says Mr. Wesley, " also supplied us 
with a quiet and inoffensive method of removing 
any disorderly member. He has no new ticket 
at the quarterly visitation — for so often the 
tickets are changed — and hereby it is immedi- 
ately known that he is no longer of the commu- 
nity." — Wesley } s Works, vol. v, p. 182. 

Sectiox II. — President of the Trial. 

1. An accused member must be brought to 
trial before a committee in the presence of the 
preacher in charge, who shall preside in the 



94 CHURCH TRIALS. Chap. V, 

trial. The Discipline requires that the preacher 
in charge shall pronounce him expelled whom 
the select committee have found guilty of a 
crime expressly forbidden in the word of God, 
If members willfully and habitually neglect the 
means of grace (Discipline, T 339) and will not 
amend, it is made the duty of " him who has 
the charge of the circuit or station to bring 
their case before the society, or a select number 
of them." The preacher in charge is required 
to " receive, try, and expel members, according 
to the form of Discipline." The history of the 
rule confirms the exposition we have given. 
The section respecting "bringing to trial dis- 
orderly members " was drawn up by Bishop 
Asbury, in 1788, and introduced into the Dis- 
cipline in the following year. The original 
section did not specify by whom the convicted 
member should be expelled, but it was indefi- 
nitely stated, " Let him be expelled." But a 
note was appended to the Minutes, in the same 
year, explanatory of this section, and setting 
forth upon whom the responsibility of conduct- 
ing a Church trial rested : "As a very few persons 
have in some respects mistaken our meaning, in 
the thirty-second section of our form of Dis- 
cipline, on bringing to trial disorderly members, 
etc., we think it necessary to explain it. When 



Sec. II.] PRESIDENT OF THE TRIAL. 95 

a member of our society is to be tried for any 
offense, the officiating minister, or preacher, is 
to call together all the members, if the society 
be small, or a select number of it if it be large, 
to take knowledge, and give advice, and bear 
witness to the justice of the whole process ; that 
improper and private expulsions may be pre- 
vented for the future.'' In 1792 the rule was 
amended, to remove all obscurity, so as to read : 
"Let the minister or preacher who has the 
charge of the circuit expel him." Rev. William 
"Watters, the first American preacher who joined 
the itinerancy, also shows how the rule was un- 
derstood in the days of the fathers. " But while 
he [the bishop] superintends the whole work," 
he remarks, u he cannot interfere with the par- 
ticular charge of any of the preachers in their 
stations. To see that the preachers fill their 
places with propriety, and to understand the 
state of every station or circuit, that he may the 
better make the appointment of the preachers, 
is, no doubt, no small part of his duty ; but he 
has nothing to do with receiving, censuring, or ex- 
cluding members : this belongs wholly to the star 
tioned preacher and members" — Memoirs, p. 105. 

2. A presiding elder may appoint a preacher 
from another circuit on his district to the charge, 



96 CHURCH TRIALS. Chap. V, 

to preside at a Church trial, when the circum- 
stances of the case seem to demand it. In such 
cases the former preacher in charge becomes a 
junior preacher, until the close of the trial. 
But no preacher in charge can transfer his 
authority to another preacher on his own re- 
sponsibility. 

3. A junior preacher cannot preside at the 
trial of a member. If the senior preacher can- 
not attend, the presiding elder should put the 
junior preacher, or some other preacher, in 
charge during the trial. 

4. "In all trials of members or preachers, 
whether by committee or before a conference, 
and in all appeals, it is improper for the pre- 
siding officer at the trial to deliver a charge to 
the committee or conference explaining the 
evidence and setting forth the merits of the 
case." — Discipline, T 351. 

Sec tion III.— Complaint 

1. When public rumor accuses a member of 
having committed a crime, prudential consid- 
erations would dictate that the pastor, or a 
committee, be appointed to visit the person so 



Sec. III.] COMPLAINT. 97 

accused, and examine the foundation of the 
reports, before any other action is taken. If 
the reports are evidently unfounded, the mem- 
ber is not mortified by the additional report 
that he has been arraigned before the Church. 
Such a committee is prepared also to rescue the 
character of a suffering brother, by a presenta- 
tion of the facts which a diligent investigation 
elicited. Such a procedure also shows the care 
and jealous} 7 with which the Church watches 
over the Christian reputation of her mem- 
bers. 

2. The administrator of discipline must ordi- 
narily reduce to suitable form the charges and 
specifications from the rough story of the com- 
plainant. To give no attention to any com- 
plaints except such as are presented in due form, 
is to neglect the greatest number of those re- 
quiring the special investigation of the Church. 

3. A bill of charges should not be drawn on 
the mere declaration of a complainant that he 
" has probable cause to suspect " a member of 
being guilty of crime; but even this, under 
some circumstances, might justify the raising of 
a committee to investigate the facts in the case. 
Nor is a report, made by one whose testimony 

7 



98 CHUKCH TRIALS. [Chap.T, 

would not be received in an ecclesiastical court, 
a sufficient basis to justify an arrest of charac- 
ter, unless there are collateral circumstances or 
facts to corroborate the statements of the 
accuser. 

4. Any crime, committed at however remote 
a period, if it be within the time in which the 
accused has been a member of the Church, is 
indictable ; but it cannot extend to any period 
beyond membership. Charges of immorality 
against preachers should not be restricted to the 
time in which they have been in the ministry, 
but may extend to any time within their Church 
membership. 

5. It does not destroy the actionable character 
of a complaint, that the predecessor of the admin- 
istrator, though acquainted with the facts, took 
no legal notice of them. The indictable char- 
acter of an act depends upon the fact whether 
it is a violation of the moral law and Church 
covenant, and not upon the administration of 
frail man. 

6. Accessories to crime may be complained 
of before or after the fact ; and the same pro- 
ceedings should be had;, in every respect, as if 



Sec. III.] COMPLAINT. 99 

the accused were charged of being principal in 
the offense. 

7. In drawing out a bill of charges the fol- 
lowing order should be observed : 

a. A brief statement of the charge. 

b. The specification, or specifications, by which 
it is sustained. 

This order should be observed until every 
charge is presented, and the different specifi- 
cations are arranged under their appropriate 
heads. For example; 

I. Charge— Theft. 

1. Specification — " In taking, on the fourth 
of July," etc. 

2. Specification— — . 

II. Charge— Falsehood. 

1. Specification — " In saying," etc. 

2. Specification ■ . 

8. The object of the rule requiring the charge 
to be particularly set forth is threefold : first, to 
apprise the accused of the precise nature of the 
charge made against him; secondly, to enable 
the court to determine whether the facts 
constitute an offense, and to render the 
proper award thereon ; and, thirdly, that the 
judgment may be a bar to any future prose- 



100 CHURCH TRIALS. [Chap. V, 

eution for the same offense. (3 Stark. Ev., 

1527.) 

9. Every charge should involve an offence 
which, if fully sustained, and without any miti- 
gating circumstances, would be of a sufficiently 
aggravating character to demand a special 
Church penalty. 

10. There should be a perfect correspondence 
between the charge and the specifications. 
Every specification, if fully sustained, ought to 
be of such a character as to sustain the charge : 
and it ought not to involve a higher offence 
than that which is charged in the bill. If the 
charge is immorality, no specifications should 
be given under it which involve only an impru- 
dence ; and if the charge is imprudent conduct, 
no specification should be given which involves 
an immorality. 

11. Every charge should be expressed in as 
mild language as possible, and yet involve an 
actionable offence; and as few charges and 
specifications should be given as practicable, 
and yet secure the great object of Church 
action. 



Sec. III.] COMPLAINT. 101 

12. Two distinct crimes should not be set 
forth under one charge, unless they are of such 
a character that, when they are committed, 
they constitute but one legal offence — as assault 
and battery : the latter includes the former. 
And each specification should set forth one, and 
only one, averment of the offence specified in 
the charge. The specifications should be stated 
in the most explicit and perspicuous language, 
and all immaterial facts, not necessary ingre- 
dients of the offence, should be carefully avoided. 
All averments should be made positively that 
the accused did so and so, and not by way of 
recital or argument. 

13. Every complaint, setting forth a crime, 
should specify, as far as possible, the time and 
place in which it was committed ; but the charge 
of disseminating erroneous doctrine, or of being 
unacceptable, in efficient, or secular, does not, 
in most cases, admit of specific particularity. 
In these cases, it is the serial character of the 
acts which, to a very great extent, constitutes 
the offence. 

14. Any error in the name of the person, or 
in the circumstances described in the bill of 
charges, provided the general meaning is clearly 



102 CHURCH TRIALS. [Chap. V, 

expressed, and the error is of such a character 
as not to change the issue of the case, ought not 
to be deemed a bar to the proceedings. The 
ends of justice ought never to suffer from mere 
technicalities ; but the charges and specifications 
must be so correctly drawn that the accused 
may fully understand, from the complaint itself, 
the true nature of the case, and what he must 
show to declare his innocence. 

15. All complaints setting forth charges and 
specifications must be signed by some member 
of the Church. If the complaint is originally 
made by a person not a member of the Church, 
the bill of charges must be signed by one over 
whom the Church exercises jurisdiction. It is 
not necessary that the person signing the bill 
of charges should be an accuser^ in the sense of 
the Discipline. "An aggrieved person," says 
Bishop M'Kendree, " may be a complainant; 
but our Discipline does not recognize any one 
as .an accuser unless he be a witness in the case 
against the accused," 

16. It is not advisable that a presiding elder 
should sign a bill of charges against a preacher 
which must be investigated before himself; nor 
should a preacher in charge sign a bill of charges 



Sec. III.] COMPLAINT. 103 

against one of his members, unless the members 
of the Church refuse to do it. In those cases 
where a preacher in charge feels it his duty to 
prefer a charge against a member of his flock, 
the presiding elder should, ordinarily, put some 
other preacher in charge to try the case. 

It is a principle universally regarded in civil 
proceedings that no judge shall be counsel, nor 
act as attorney, nor advise nor assist any party 
in any case which will come before him ; and 
the principle is so manifestly founded in justice 
that it should not be disregarded in ecclesias- 
tical proceedings. In those extreme cases where 
a member cannot be found who will sis;n a bill 
of charges, there must* exist such peculiarities 
and difficulties in the case as not only to re- 
quire a strictly impartial presiding officer, but 
one who will have the reputation of being 
impartial. 

17. Where several persons are accused of 
having been connected in the commission of 
any crime, the charges and specifications should 
be made out separately, and each person tried 
separately. 

18. Every member accused of crime is entitled 
to a copy of the charges and specifications, for 



104 CHUKCH TRIALS. [Chap. Y, 

a time sufficiently long before the trial for him 
to prepare his defense. 

19. If a copy of the charges and specifications, 
duly signed, is left at the usual residence of the 
accused, it should be deemed a sufficient cita- 
tion, even if the accused has fled from the place, 
or his present residence is not known. 

Section IV.— Select Committee. 

1. The Discipline requires that an accused 
member shall be brought " before a committee 
of not less than five, except in case of neglect 
of duty, in which case the accused may be 
brought before the society or a select commit- 
tee, who shall not be members of the quarterly 
conference, (and if the preacher judge neces- 
sary, the committee may be selected from any 
part of the district.) " In either case it should 
be understood that only members in full con- 
nection are intended. In 1789 the following 
explanation of the rule was published in the 
Discipline : " Call together all the members, if 
the society be small, or a select number if it be 
large." 

2. If the accused member is brought before a 
select number, the preacher in charge must ap- 



Sec. IT.] SELECT COMMITTEE. 105 

point them. And " in case of trial before a 
select committee, the parties may challenge for 
cause." (Discipline, T 336.) 

3. " In selecting a committee for the trial 
of a member," Bishop Hedding remarks, " a 
preacher ought to be very careful to obtain wise, 
pious, and candid men, who will do justice both 
to the accused person and to the Church. 
There should be a sufficient number of them to 
form a respectable court : for the decision of so 
important a matter should not be left to two or 
three individuals." 

The committee should consist of men of such 
acknowledged virtue and integrity that their 
opinions will be respected both by the Church 
and the world. Many persons of deep and ar- 
dent piety, unaccustomed to weigh evidence and 
balance testimony, and whose hearts are full of 
gushing sympathy for the erring, are not well 
qualified to discharge the duties of a select com- 
mittee, where the honor and reputation of the 
Church are at stake. No less qualifications, 
certainly, should be deemed satisfactory in those 
who sit in solemn judgment on the moral and 
Christian reputation of one for whom Christ 
died, than is demanded of the juror at a civil 
tribunal. Such are required to be men of pro!> 



106 CHUECH TRIALS. [Chap. V, 

ity and intelligence, free from personal interest 
and party prejudice: much more should the 
Christian man be free from all undue bias while 
investigating the character of a professed mem- 
ber of the body of Christ. The peace and pros- 
perity of the Church, and the salvation of the 
accused, stand so closely connected with the re- 
sults of a Church trial, that justice and equity 
should be most impartially administered. Many 
causes, such as # kindred, prejudice, etc., which 
would not render one incompetent as a witness, 
are sufficient to disqualify him as a member of 
the select committee. The committee must not 
be composed of members of the quarterly con- 
ference ; that, in case of appeal, a new tribunal 
may decide upon the merits of the case. (Dis- 
cipline, 1" 336.) 

4. " The circumstances of the case," says 
Chief-Justice Pennington, " the probable or im- 
probable nature of the facts detailed, the char- 
acter of the witness, the manner of his giving 
testimony, must all be taken into consideration, 
and ought, after being duly weighed, to carry 
conviction to the minds of the jury before they 
give it [the testimony] an effect by their verdict. 
Should a witness relate a fact which, from its 
improbable nature, or from the badness of the 
character of the witness, taken together with the 



Sec. IV.] SELECT COMMITTEE. 107 

circtimstances in the case, on due consideration 
does not carry a belief of the fact home to the 
minds of the jury, but, on the other hand, they 
believe what the witness hath related is false, — 
in that case what he has said is no evidence to 
them, and they are not bound to give any 
weight to it ; but, on the contrary, if they act 
upon it, or rather make up their verdict upon 
it, such conduct is a departure from their duty, 
and little short of a violation of their oath." 
The weight of testimony is a question belonging 
to the select committee exclusively. 

5. The committee have no right, in forming 
their opinion, to take into consideration any 
facts within their own cognizance, of which no 
evidence was presented in the trial. If any 
member of the committee knew any important 
fact, he should have stated it as a witness. 

6. Making up judgment. 

a. The committee should first inquire whether 
the specifications have been sustained by evi- 
dence. 

b. Whether, the specifications being sustained, 
the charge is proved. All the specifications 
may be proved, and yet the charge be not sus- 
tained ; but if the specifications are not sus- 



108 CHURCH TRIALS. [Chap. Y, 

tained, the charge, of course, cannot be sustained 
in the highest degree. 

c. The whole question of guilt rests upon the 
decision of the committee. It is to decide, if 
the charge is one of immorality, whether the 
crime is one of the first or second degree. There 
may be palliating circumstances which should 
be taken into the account, and which greatly 
modify the guilt, and hence should change the 
penalty. Bishop Hedding remarks : " Another 
question has arisen here. When the ' select 
number ' judges a member guilty of the act of 
which he is accused, who is to judge whether 
that act is a crime, in the sense of the rule — the 
select number or the preacher? The select 
number : for the crime is included in the judg- 
ment of ' guilty. 5 When the judgment of guilty 
is rendered, the rule says, ' Let the preacher in 
charge expel him.' " 

d. The judgment of the committee should 
never be given verbally, but should be written, 
and signed by all of the committee who approve 
of the decision. A majority of the committee 
is competent to render a verdict in a Church trial. 

It is not expected of the committee that it 
will set forth, in its verdict, the grounds of its 
judgment ; but there may be circumstances in 
which this may be necessary. 



Sec. IV.] SELECT COMMITTEE. , 109 

The committee is allowed to have before it 
all the maps, charts, and written documents 
which were admitted during the trial. 

7. The question has frequently been asked, 
May the preacher remain with the select num- 
ber while they are making up their judgment ? 
In reply, Bishop Hedding remarks : " Certainly 
he ought, for he is pastor of the flock ; and he 
would greatly neglect his duty were he to be 
absent, and consequently not know on what law 
or evidence the judgment is rendered." Mr. 
Wesley believed that the New Testament makes 
the pastor responsible to Christ for the purity 
of the flock, and hence he should judge as to the 
guilt or innocence of the accused member. Our 
fathers administered the Discipline on this prin- 
ciple up to the year 1800. It was then pro- 
vided that the society, or select committee, 
should pronounce an opinion upon the guilt or 
innocence of the accused ; and the action of the 
preacher was to be governed by this decision. 
The entire responsibility of the decision, we re- 
peat, rests alone upon the committee. The 
preacher, under no circumstances, should at- 
tempt to balance the evidence, weigh probabil- 
ities, determine the credibility of witnesses, or 
draw inferences from the facts proved, and thus 



110 , CHURCH TRIALS. [Chap. T, 

determine disputed questions of fact, even at the 
request of the parties. " No judicious adminis- 
trator of the Discipline," says Bishop Morris, 
" will let the committee, or any other person, 
know his opinion of the case, either before the 
trial or during its progress, till the members of 
the committee have made their decision and 
signed their names to it." 

8. When the words of a charge or specifica- 
tion are susceptible of two meanings, the select 
committee must determine in what sense they 
are used. 

9. When an accused member is brought to 
trial before the society, all members in full con- 
nection, whether males or females, are entitled 
to vote. The select committee may consist in 
part of females, where the circumstances seem 
to demand it. Usage, however, restricts the 
select committee to males. (Bishop Janes.) 



Section V.—Tke Trial. 

1. It is the duty of the presiding officer to 
conduct the religious services of the occasion, to 
read the names of the select committee and the 
counsel of the parties, to appoint a secretary to 



Sec. -Y.] THE TRIAL. Ill 

keep a correct record of the trial, to read the 
charges and specifications to the accused, to de- 
cide who are competent witnesses, and whether 
the documents offered are admissible, and to de- 
cide all questions of law which arise in the proc- 
ess of the trial. If the accused is expelled, and 
dissatisfied with the ruling of the presiding of- 
ficer, he has the -following remedy. On a ques- 
tion of law, either party may appeal to the 
decision of the president of the next annual con- 
ference. The accused may appeal to the en- 
suing quarterly conference, or he may charge 
the presiding officer with maladministration be- 
fore the annual conference. 

2. Mode of conducting a trial. 

a. The arraignment. 

(1.) Beading the charges and specifications 

to the accused. 
(2.) Demanding his reply to the charge. 

b. The accuser calls and examines his wit- 
nesses. Cross-examination by the accused. 

c. The accused puts in his evidence. Cross- 
examination by the accuser. 

d. Rebutting testimony by the accuser. 

e. Rebutting testimony by the accused. 

f. Closing arguments. 
(1.) By the accuser. 



112 CHURCH TRIALS. [Chap. V, 

(2.) By the accused. 

(3.) By the accuser. 
g. Yerdict by the committee. 
h. Announcement of acquittal or expulsion 

by the presiding officer. 

3. If the accused voluntarily confesses that 
he is guilty of the charge, no further evidence 
will of course follow : the case is at once to be 
submitted to the committee. 

4. If the accused refuses to answer to the 
charge, or answers foreign to the purpose, it is 
deemed in law equivalent to answering not 
guilty, unless he is dumb ex visitatione Del. 

5. No member can be held to answer on a 
second indictment for anv offense of which he 
has been acquitted by a committee, on the facts 
and merits, on a former trial. But if he is ac- 
quitted upon the ground of a variance between 
the indictment and the proof, or upon an} 7 ex- 
ception to the form and substance of the indict- 
ment, he may be tried on a new process, and 
convicted for the same offense, notwithstanding 
such former acquittal. A plea of former ac- 
quittal is valid only when the accused has been 
acquitted in due form by a tribunal competent 



Sea V.] THE TRIAL. 113 

to make a final disposition of the case. If a 
local or traveling preacher, therefore, should be 
acquitted by a committee called by the preacher 
in charge, or the presiding elder, such acquittal 
would serve as no bar to a subsequent arraign- 
ment, on the same charges and specifications, 
before the quarterly or district conference, or 
before the annual conference, as the case may 
be ; for these tribunals alone have original juris- 
diction over local and traveling preachers. 

6. "May a person who has not been form- 
ally received into full connection in the Church, 
but has for a term of years enjoyed all the privi- 
leges of a member, and is supposed by the 
preacher in charge and society to be a member, 
plead the fact of his non-reception as a bar to 
proceedings in case of alleged immorality ? 

" Arts. 1$o."—Gen. Conf. Jour,, 1860, p. 298. 

7. When the accused has any special matter 
to plead in abatement, or bar to the proceedings, 
he should present it at the opening of the case. 

8. Omissions and errors, when the true intent 
evidently appears, may be corrected; but no 
amendment can, during the progress of the 
trial, be admitted which in any degree changes 



114 CHURCH TRIALS. [Chap. V, 

the issue of the case. During the trial a new 
charge or specification cannot be admitted ; yet 
a charge or specification may be withdrawn 
before a verdict is rendered. For example, 
when a charge is brought for slander, consisting 
of two counts, say of theft and perjury, the 
specification of perjury may be withdrawn, and 
all the testimony by which it was supported, 
and the verdict be rendered merely in reference 
to the specification of theft. 

9. When charges are preferred against a 
member, the preacher in charge has no right to 
rule out of the bill of charges any specification 
which is legally actionable under our rules of 
discipline ; but an annual, district, or quarterly 
conference may retain or dismiss the whole 
or any part of the bill of charges, as it may 
judge proper. 

10. When an important witness is absent by 
no fault of the party for which he is to testify, 
or when a party is surprised by evidence which 
he did not anticipate, the trial may be ad- 
journed upon application of the party, at the 
discretion of the presiding' officer, to some suit- 
able time when all the important witnesses may 
be present. 



Sec. V.] THE TRIAL. 115 

11. Averments of immaterial facts, not neces- ■ 
sary ingredients in the offense, and without 
which the complaint would be good, may he 
rejected, and need not be proved. 

12. If an accused member evades a trial by 
absenting himself after sufficient notice has been 
given, and without requesting any one to appear 
in his behalf, it does not preclude the necessity 
of a formal trial. The preacher in charge 
should appoint competent counsel to conduct 
the defense, and all the evidence in the case 
should be presented in due form to the com- 
mittee. If the committee decide that the cir- 
cumstances of the accusation afford strong pre- 
sumption of guilt, the accused is to be esteemed 
as guilty, and accordingly excluded by the 
preacher in charge; but in no case can expul- 
sion take place until such a verdict is rendered. 
The committee, and not the preacher in charge, 
must decide when a member " evades a trial," 
in the sense of the Discipline, 

13. The trial must be limited to the particular 
charge brought against the accused. If a dif- 
ferent crime is proved from the one alleged 
against him, he cannot be held to answer to it, 
unless there is a new bill of charges, setting 



116 CHURCH TRIALS. [Chap. Y. 

forth the particular offense complained of, and 
a trial de novo held, according to the form 
of Discipline. 

14. There may be circumstances which would 
justify a preacher in refusing to entertain a bill 
of charges, even when signed by respectable 
members of the Church. In such cases the 
accusers may, if they deem it proper, complain 
of the preacher to his presiding elder, or to the 
conference, for neglect of duty ; and the pre- 
siding elder may remove him from the charge, 
and the conference try him for neglect of minis- 
terial duty. 

15. After charges have been entertained, and 
the trial has proceeded until the complainant 
has produced his testimony, the case cannot 
then be dismissed without the consent of the 
complainant. (Bishop Waugh.) 

16. If the accused desires assistance in con- 
ducting his defense, all necessary aid should be 
given him, and he should be allowed to make 
.full defense by himself and counsel, and to 
make any proof by competent witnesses whom 
he may produce. The accused member may 
select his own counsel, provided that such coun- 



Sec. VL] THE TRIAL. 117 

sel is a member in good and regular standing in 
the Methodist Episcopal Church. 

17. It is. highly improper, ordinarily, to con- 
duct a trial in a public congregation. None 
should be present except the parties summoned ; 
at least, unless they are members of the Church. 

18. When testimony has been admitted and 
journalized, it cannot be taken from the record 
without the consent of both parties. 

19. " In all cases of trial and appeal it is im- 
proper for the presiding officer to deliver a 
charge to the committee explaining the evidence 
and setting forth the merits of the case." — 
Discipline, ^[351. 

Section VI. — General Laws of Evidence. 

1. Every administrator of Discipline should 
have a correct knowledge of tiie general laws 
of evidence, as established by the civil judi- 
ciary; for though in ecclesiastical courts mere 
technicalities should never subvert the princi- 
ples of equity, yet the general laws of evidence 
established by the wisdom of ages are as ap- 
plicable in establishing matters of fact before an 



118 CHURCH TRIALS. [Chap. V, 

ecclesiastical tribunal as before a civil. Some 
of these principles are the following : 

2. First. The evidence must correspond with 
the allegations, and be confined to the point in 
issue. It is supposed that nothing will be ex- 
pressed in the bill of charges which is immate- 
rial ; and hence every allegation set forth should 
be supported by direct testimony. If, however, 
the specifications are drawn out with unneces- 
sary particularity, a judicious committee might 
consider as surplusage w r hatever is not necessary 
to constitute the crime. Extraneous facts tend 
to draw away the minds of the committee from 
the point in issue, and operate unjustly upon the 
accused ; for he cannot be supposed to have pre- 
pared himself to meet any point except the gen- 
eral one set forth in the bill of charges. 

3. Secondly. It is sufficient if the substance 
of the issue be proved. The civil law makes a 
distinction between allegations of matter of 
substance and allegations of essential descrip- 
tion. It is sufficient if the former be substan- 
tially proved ; but the latter must be proved with 
literal precision. In ecclesiastical trials, where 
we have to deal with actions which are criminal 
in themselves, whatever may have been the 



Sec. VL] LAWS OF EVIDENCE. 119 

crcumstances in which they took place, the rule 
may be applied, with hardly an exception, that 
it is sufficient if the substance of the allegation 
be proved. "If, in an action for malicious 
prosecution, the plaintiff* alleges that he was 
acquitted of the charge on a certain day, here 
the substance of the allegation is the acquittal; 
and it is sufficient if this fact be proved on any 
day, the time not being material." If the aver- 
ment is divisible, and enough is proved to con- 
stitute an offense, it would be deemed sufficient, 
both in a civil and in an ecclesiastical court, 
that one part merely was proved. Thus an 
indictment for stealing two notes of equal value 
would be sustained if the evidence only proved 
that one note was stolen. In a proceeding to 
protect public morals, nothing should be deemed 
essential but that which constitutes the act of 
crime. 

4. Thirdly. The obligation of proving any 
fact lies upon the party who substantially as- 
serts the affirmative of the issue. It is generally 
sufficient to oppose a direct denial to a direct 
allegation, until it is established by evidence, 
or by strong collateral circumstances. As the 
party in the affirmative is entitled to begin and 
to reply, he should bring forward all his evi- 



120 CHUECH TRIALS. [Chap. Y, 

dence before any defense is made. The rule 
seems to have been based upon the fact that, in 
most cases, it is impossible to prove a negative 
as readily and explicitly as an affirmative. If 
a man has indulged in the use of ardent spirits 
to intoxication, that is usually susceptible of 
proof; but it might be exceedingly difficult for 
an innocent man to prove that he was not in- 
toxicated on a given day. 

5. Fourthly. The best evidence should be 
procured of which the nature of the case is 
susceptible. This rule does not forbid the in- 
troduction of testimony of different degrees of 
strength, but it requires that strong evidence 
should not be withheld when it is known to be 
in the possession of the party. When such 
testimony is withheld, the design is evidently 
fraudulent. Oral testimony cannot be substi- 
tuted for documentary, when such testimony 
can be procured. 

6. Hearsay evidence. This term is applied 
both to written and to oral testimony, and re- 
lates to such as does not derive its value solely 
from the credit given to the witness himself, but 
rests also, in part, on the veracity of others. 
Hearsay evidence is universally held as incom- 






Sec. VIL] LAWS OF EAIDENCE. 121 

petent to establish any specific fact which is 
susceptible of being proved by living witnesses. 
" If," says Justice Buller, " the first speech 
were without oath, another oath that there was 
such speech makes it no more than a bare 
speaking, and so of no value in a court of jus- 
tice."— Bull. N. P., 294. 

7. In the following cases hearsay testimony 
is received in civil courts : 

a. In matters of public and general interest, 
where the health or happiness, reputation or 
prosperity, of the whole community is involved. 

h. In matters of ancient possessions, where it 
is supposed that no original witnesses* are now 
living. 

c. Declarations and entries made by persons 
since deceased, and against the interests of the 
persons making them at the time they were 
made. 

d. Dying declarations of sane persons. 

e. The testimony of deceased witnesses, given 
in a former action between the same parties. 

Section VII. — Witnesses. 

1. The Roman law required the evidence of 
two witnesses as the foundation of a decree. In 
our courts one witness, if his testimony is cor- 



122 CHURCH TRIALS. [Chap. V, 

roborated by strong collateral circumstances, is 
sufficient to establish facts. In ecclesiastical 
trials, while a single allegation, rebutted by a 
positive denial, should not be deemed sufficient 
to destroy the Christian character of one in 
whom the Church had reposed the fullest confi- 
dence, yet a single testimony, corroborated by 
strong collateral circumstances, may convince 
an intelligent committee of the moral certainty 
of the guilt of the accused. 

2. Common law forbids that a party to the 
record in a civil suit should testify, either for 
himself or for a co-suitor in the cause ; and the 
same principle holds equally good in all ecclesi- 
astical examinations. Nevertheless, in many of 
the States statutes have been enacted, allowing 
parties in civil suits, and even those charged 
with having committed the highest crimes, to 
testify in the case, the tribunal of course giving 
such weight to the testimony *as may seem 
proper under all the circumstances. If the 
complainant has no other interest in the case 
than is common to all the members of the 
Church, he should be allowed to testify. 

3. Neither husband nor wife can testify in 
any civil or criminal cause in which one of them 



Sec. VII] WITNESSES. 123 

is a party. To secure domestic happiness, it is 
held that neither of them should be required to 
divulge any confidential communications ob- 
tained by the hallowed confidence of the mar- 
riage relation. No other relationship, except 
that of husband and wife, disqualifies a person 
from testifying for or against another. In ec- 
clesiastical courts, however, the husband and 
wife should mutually be allowed to testify for 
each other, and the committee should give such 
weight to their testimony as they consider it is 
entitled to. 

4. Persons deficient iji understanding are in- 
competent witnesses. 

When the deaf and dumb are produced in 
civil courts, it must be shown by the party pro- 
ducing them that they are persons of sufficient 
understanding to give testimony. 

In regard to children, there is no precise age 
within which they are absolutely rejected. At 
the age of fourteen it is presumed that every 
person is competent, until the opposite is shown. 
Some have been admitted as early as five years 
of age to testify in civil courts. 

5. Persons insensible to the obligations of an 
oath, as atheists, and those made infamous by 



124 CEUKCH TRIALS. [Chap. V, 

having been convicted of flagrant crimes, as fel- 
ony, forgery, perjury, etc., are deemed incom- 
petent to testify before a civil tribunal. Nor 
should they be listened to in an ecclesiastical 
investigation, unless their statements are corrob- 
orated by strong collateral circumstances, or 
they have been reformed in their morals. 

6. Persons of reputed veracity are competent 
witnesses in a Church trial, without regard to 
their particular religious belief or Church, rela- 
tion. " Witnesses from without " the pale of 
the Church " shall not be rejected." 

7. The presiding officer of a trial must deter- 
mine the competency of a witness; but the 
society, or select committee, must determine 
what weight, if any, should be given to the 
testimony. 

8. Though we would not say that a pastor is 
not a competent witness against any of his flock, 
yet we would repeat, that if he is the principal 
witness, the presiding elder should put another 
preacher in charge to preside at the trial. In 
civil courts the same person cannot be both 
judge and witness. If another judge is present 
and presides, a judge may be sworn and testify ; 



VriL] EXAMINATION. 125 

but not otherwise. And though a preacher in 
charge does not sustain the same relation to an 
ecclesiastical court that a judge does to a civil, 
vet there are so raanv analogies between them 
that it is ordinarily inexpedient that the same 
person should be both presiding officer of the 
trial and a witness. 



Section VIII. — Examination of Witnesses. 

1. Witnesses are to be examined first by the 
party producing them, and afterward cross- 
examined by the opposite party, 

2. The presiding officer may order that the 
witnesses be examined out of the hearing of 
each other, when he deems it essential to the 
discovery of truth. 

3. Each witness should be called upon to re- 
late what he knows of the case, and his testi- 
mony should be written, and to insure perfect 
accuracy in the records, read to him as taken 
by the secretary. Every question and answer 
should be written which either party deems es- 
sential to the case. 

4. Leading questions are not allowed in direct 
examination, but they are admissible in cross- 



126 « CHURCH TRIALS. [Chap. Y, 

examination. Leading questions are those which 
suggest to the witness the desired answer. Ex- 
ample : Was not the said A B in 

M on the fourth of July last? Leading 

questions are permitted in direct examination 
where the witness appears to be hostile to the 
party producing him, and where an omission is 
evidently caused by want of recollection. 

5. A witness is not permitted to write down 
his testimony to read in court ; but he is per- 
mitted to assist his memory by a written instru- 
ment or memorandum. It is not necessary that 
this memorandum should have been made by 
the witness, or be admissible in itself as evi- 
dence. 

6. Witnesses in general must depose to such 
facts only as are within their own knowledge. 
In some cases persons are required to state their 
opinions or belief. Examples : the testimony 
of medical men, whether death could be pro- 
duced by certain causes ; whether certain cir- 
cumstances indicated a sane or insane state of 
mind ; the testimony of skillful penmen, whether 
a given writing were the veritable chirography 
of a particular person. Professional books are 
not admissible in evidence. 



Sec. VIII.] EXAMINATION. 127. 

7. A witness, while giving his testimony, may 
recall and correct his testimony ; but it should 
be taken down just as it is given, with all its 
corrections : and it is for the committee to de- 
cide whether the latter statements are more 
worthy of belief than the former. 

8. All exceptions to evidence ought to be 
made at the time when it is first taken. After 
the verdict it is too late to take an exception. 

9. Witnesses in civil courts are not compelled 
to answer any questions which will degrade or 
expose them to penal liability ; but as our ec- 
clesiastical courts are not so legalized that the 
witness is compelled to answer any question, 
this subject need not be considered. The pre- 
siding officer must decide whether the question 
is a proper one, 

10. If no counsel appear for the complainant, 
the presiding officer should put such questions 
as may be necessary to elicit the truth, guard- 
ing carefully against any bias toward either 
party. Is o question should be put to a witness 
the relevancy of which does not appear, 

11. A witness in an ecclesiastical court ouo;ht 
not to be put on oath : it can accomplish no 



128 CHURCH TRIALS. [Cliap. V, 

good. Such oaths are extrajudicial, and not 
legally binding. No oaths are held by the civil 
law to be obligatory except those given in 
some proceeding which the civil law recog- 
nizes. To swear falsely before a court in- 
competent to administer an oath is not perjury. 
(2 Caines, 91.) 

12. Evidence of good character is inadmissi- 
ble when the general character for veracity has 
not been impeached, even if an attempt is made 
to prove facts inconsistent with the statements 
of the witness. 

13. A witness may be impeached in two 
ways : 

a. By disproving the facts stated by him -by 
the testimony of other witnesses. 

h. By general evidence affecting his credit for 
veracity. 

"In impeaching the character of a witness, 
in the second mode, it is not allowable to im- 
peach his general moral character, but his gen- 
eral character for veracity, and that not by pro- 
ducing testimony of particular facts of bad 
moral conduct, but by producing testimony as 
to the general fact of his unreliability as a per- 
son of veracity."— -Gen. Conf, Jour,, 1860, p. 428. 



Sec. IX.] DEPOSITIONS. 129 

The general character of a member of our 
Church for veracity cannot be impeached ; but 
the facts stated by him may be disproved by the 
testimony of other witnesses. 



Section IX. — Depositions. 

1. It is advisable, in all cases where it can be 
done, to produce all material witnesses at the 
trial. But as no ecclesiastical judicatory can 
compel the presence of any witness, it fre- 
quently becomes necessary to take depositions. 

2. " The testimony of an absent witness may 
be taken before the preacher in charge, or a 
preacher appointed by the presiding elder of 
the district within which such witness resides ; 
provided, in every case, sufficient notice has been 
given to the adverse party of the time and place 
of taking such testimony." — Discipline, ^[ 347. 
The notice should state the hour and place of 
taking the testimony, and be delivered to the 
party in person, or left at his usual place of 
residence. A notice left at a post-office is not 
sufficient, if it was not received by the party. 
What time is a reasonable notice to the adverse 
party in taking depositions is not fixed by the 
Discipline, but is a question of law which the 



130 CHUECH TEIALS. [Chap. V, 

presiding officer must decide ; ordinarily a week, 
at least, should be allowed. 

3. Form of notice : 

To A. B. Whereas C. D. has requested me 
to take the deposition of E. F., of Gr., to be used 
in the examination of the charges and specifica- 
tions preferred against you by C. D., I do, 
therefore, appoint the second day of June, 18 — , 
at one o'clock P. M., at the house of the said 
E. F., as the time and place for the said person 
to testify what he knows relative to matters 
contained in the said charges and specifications. 
And you are hereby notified, that you may then 
and there be present, and put such interrogato- 
ries as you may judge fit. 

Tours, etc., H. K., Pastor. 

L , May 20, 18 — . 



4. Form of deposition : 

I, E. F., of G., testify and say that 



After the direct testimony of the deponent is 
written, the party taking the deposition is al- 
lowed, first, to examine him on all the points 
which he deems material ; and then the adverse 
party may examine him in the same way. After 
which either party may propose such other in- 
terrogatories as the case may require. 



Sec. IX.] DEPOSITIONS. 131 

If the accused objects to the admission of the 
person to testify in the case, this should be 
written down, stating the nature of the ob- 
jection. 

If any question is objected to by either party, 
as being leading, or irrelevant, or hearsay, or 
relating to matters of opinion, this should be 
noted under the question, and previous to the 
writing of the answer. 

Ordinarily, great latitude should be allowed 
to the questions, if desired by either party ; nor 
is it advisable, usually, at this stage of the pro- 
ceedings, to decide on the validity of the objec- 
tions, unless in very clear cases. 

After the deposition is written, it should be 
read to the deponent, and signed by him. A 
note should be appended to every deposition, 
stating the reason of its being taken, and 
whether the adverse party was duly notified 
and attended. 

5. Depositions should be sealed up by the 
person taking them, and remain sealed until 
opened by the proper authorities. 

6. Depositions should be rejected if it appear 
that the opposite party was not notified to at- 
tend at the time and place appointed for taking 



132 CHURCH TRIALS. [Chap. V. 

the deposition, or that a sufficient notice was 
not given, or that he was notified to attend at 
a time when he must necessarily be absent, or 
engaged in important business requiring his 
personal attention, and that this was known to 
the party giving the notice. 

7. When witnesses are present at the seat of 
the conference, but refuse to give evidence iu 
open conference, the conference has a right to 
appoint a commission to take their testimony, 
the opposite party being notified to appear be- 
fore such commission, and having the right to 
cross-examine the witnesses. In such cases the 
testimony is to be taken by a secretary ap- 
pointed by the commission ; and, when re- 
ported to the conference, it must be filed and 
carefully preserved by the secretary of that 
body. 

8. "When only a part of a deposition is de- 
sired to be used in a trial, the whole of it must 
be read. 

Section X. — Appeal. 

1. The privilege of appeal is allowed both to 
preachers and members by the constitution of 
our Church, under certain limitations. The 



Sec. X.] APPEAL. 138 

General Conference " shall not do away the 
privileges of our ministers and preachers of trial 
by a committee, and of an appeal : neither shall 
they do away the privileges of our members of 
trial before the society, or by a committee, and 
of an appeal." It is required, however, in or- 
der that the appeal may be entertained, that the 
condemned person signify his intention to ap- 
peal within a given time. 

2. The court appealed to, and not the court 
appealed from, is to judge whether or not the 
party has a right to appeal. As the right of 
appeal is not treated in the Restrictive Rules as 
a conditional one to be regulated by express en- 
actments, great license should be given to this 
right. No appeal should be rejected unless 
there are very manifest reasons for it. It has 
never been considered, however, that the appel- 
late court can exercise no discretion in any case 
of appeal, — that it must entertain every appeal 
that is made to it. 

3. If an accused person evades a trial by ab- 
senting himself after sufficient notice has been 
given him, and the committee judge that the 
circumstances of the accusation afford strong 
presumption of guilt, he may be esteemed as 



134 CHURCH TRIALS. [Chap. Y, 

guilty, and be accordingly excluded. And a 
person who absents himself from trial can claim 
no right to an appeal. But mere absence from 
the place of trial does not show that the accused 
person evaded a trial by absenting himself, in 
the sense of the Discipline. He should be al- 
lowed to show to the quarterly conference that 
his absence from the trial was not designed, and 
a fault on his part. If a majority of the quar- 
terly conference are convinced that he did not 
designedly evade a trial, the appeal should be 
entertained. 

4. " When a member of an annual conference 
gives notice to the conference that he has with- 
drawn from the Church or conference, and at 
the same time there be charges ready to be pre- 
sented against him, and he has knowledge of 
such charges previous to his notice of with- 
drawal, and he has been marked upon the jour- 
nal of the annual conference as withdrawn un- 
der charges, has such member the right to 
appeal to the General Conference from such 
record of the annual conference ? 

"Answer. He has not." — Gen. Conf. Jour., 
1860, p. 298. 

5. No appeal of an excluded member can be 
entertained, unless it is brought before the next 



Sec. X.] APPEAL. 135 

ensuing quarterly conference ; or of a local 
preacher, unless he signify to the district or quar- 
terly conference, as the case may be, his deter- 
mination to appeal to the next annual confer- 
ence ; or of a traveling preacher, unless he signify 
his intention to appeal to the judicial conference 
at the time of his condemnation, or at any subse- 
quent time when he is informed of it. The 
General Conference of 1860 adopted the follow- 
ing decision : 

" When an expelled member has, by neglect 
or otherwise, forfeited his right of appeal, may 
a subsequent quarterly conference, if it desire 
to do so, grant him the privilege of an appeal ? 

"Answer. No." — Gen. Conf. Jour., p. 298. 

6. No district or quarterly conference can 
try an appeal when the testimony is not duly 
recorded. When accurate minutes have not 
been taken in the trial before the society, or a 
select number, " the case," says Bishop Hedding, 
" should be referred back for a new trial, that 
those who did their work carelessly, at first, 
may have opportunity of doing it properly, 
and of being admonished to avoid such errors 
afterward." 

7. In case a local preacher appeals to the 
annual conference, and it is found that the 



136 CHUKCH TRIALS. [Chap. Y, 

minutes of the trial were not signed bv the 
president of the conference by which he was 
tried, and by a majority of the members of the 
conference who were present, the appeal cannot 
be entertained. When the Discipline has been 
illegally administered, the case should be re- 
manded to the tribunal holding original juris- 
diction over the member, for a new trial. 
(Bishop Soule.) 

8. Mode of conducting appeals in the Gen- 
eral Conference. 

(1.) Present the appeal. 

(2.) Determine what members of the Com- 
mittee on Appeals, not less than fifteen, shall 
hear and try the case — a majority of whom shall 
decide. 

(3.) Read the findings in the case. 

(4.) State the grounds of the appeal. 

(5.) Motion to admit the appeal. 

(6.) Read the minutes and documents. 

(7.) Appellant's defense. 

(8.) Reply of the delegates of the conference 
from whose action the appeal is taken. 

(9.) Appellant's reply to the delegates. 

(10.) Decision of the case. 

9. The motion to admit the appeal is put to 
the court, that if the appellant is not entitled to 



Sec. X.] APPEAL. 137 

an appeal the facts of the case may be presented. 
In the following cases appeals may not be 
entertained : 

a. When the accused absents himself from 
trial in a strictly disciplinary sense. (Discipline, 
1 363.) 

b. When he does not signify his intention to 
appeal within the specified time. (Discipline", 
1 352, 362, 363. (Gen. Conf. Jour., 1860, p. 298.) 

c. When no censure or reproof was adminis- 
tered as a penalty, and the conference passed 
the character of the appellant without censure, 
and simply declared that he erred in judgment 
in the administration of Discipline. (Gen. Conf. 
Jour., 1840, pp. 82, 83.) 

d. When the appellant declares himself with- 
drawn from the Church subsequent to the 
adjudication of his case and the avowal of his 
intention to appeal. (Gen. Conf. Jour., 1848, 
p. 38.) 

e. If a member of an annual conference gives 
notice to the conference that he has withdrawn 
from the Church or conference, and at the same 
time there are charges ready to be preferred 
against him, and he has knowledge of such 
charges previous to his notice of withdrawal, if 
the conference should enter upon its journal that 
lie withdrew under charges, he could claim no 



138 CHURCH TRIALS. [Chap. V, 

right to appeal from such record to the judicial 
conference. (Gen. Conf. Jour., I860, pp. 223, 
298.) 

f. When an expelled preacher does not sub- 
mit to the decision of the conference, but con- 
tinues to preach as if still in full possession of 
ministerial powers, and has connected himself 

with another Church or organization con tern- 

* 

plating church ends independent of and hostile 
to the Methodist Episcopal Church, he is not 
entitled to an appeal. (Gen. Conf. Jour., 1860, 
p. 253.) 

But in all cases where the right of appeal has 
not been lost by some violation of the pro- 
visions of the Discipline, the appeal must be 
entertained. 

10. If an appeal is well taken, it does not 
place the case wholly within the jurisdiction of 
the appellate court to make such an award as it 
deems proper ; but the appellate court must 
either affirm or reverse the decision of the court 
below, or remand the case for a new trial. 
(Bishops Janes and Baker.) 

11. Decisions in an appellate court : 

" In any ecclesiastical court of appeals, when 
the three questions, Shall the decision of the 



Sec. X] APPEAL. 139 

lower court be affirmed ? Shall the case be re- 
manded for a new trial ? Shall the former decis- 
sion be reversed? have been successively put, 
and there is a tie vote on each, then in what 
condition does it leave the appellant ? 

" Resolved, That it is the sense of this confer- 
ence that when the motions to affirm, to remand, 
and to reverse have been successively put and lost, 
the decision of the court below stands as the 
final adjudication of the case." — Gen. Conf. 
Jour., 1860, p. 248. 

12. In no case of appeal can new evidence be 
admitted. Only the journalized and document- 
ary testimony taken and presented at the first 
trial can be introduced. (Gen. Conf. Jour., 1848, 
p. 127.) If the appellant affirms that he has in 
his possession testimony which was not before 
the original court, and which, in his opinion, 
would exculpate him from one or more charges 
on which he was expelled, the case may be re- 
manded for a new trial. (Gen. Conf. Jour., 
1840, p. 77.) 

13. Relation of an expelled member whose 
case has been remanded by the appellate court : 

" When an appeal is taken by an expelled 
member to the quarterly conference, and the 



140 CHURCH TRIALS. [Chap. V, 

conference remands the case for a new trial, 
what is the precise relation of the appellant? 
Is he an accused member, and must the preach- 
er proceed to try him again, or is he restored to 
his membership in good standing ? 

" Ans. He is an accused member, and the 
preacher should proceed to try him again un- 
less the charges are withdrawn." — Discipline, 
1349. 

14. After a member has been tried, expelled, 
and taken an appeal, and the quarterly confer- 
ence has affirmed the decision of the court be- 
low, a succeeding quarterly conference is not 
competent to reopen the case for adjudication, 
by granting another trial to the expelled mem- 
ber. The decision of the appellate court is 
final. (Bishop Hedding.) 

15. When*the appellate court reverses the 
decision of the court below, the appellant is 
reinstated in his former membership, without 
any action of the court from which he took an 
appeal. 

16. If an excluded steward, exhorter, or 
class-leader is restored to membership by the 
quarterly conference, such action does not 



Sec. X.] 



APPEAL. 141 



restore him to his previous official relation. 
He is brought to trial as if he had sustained no 
official relation ; and a quarterly conference 
can restore no office which it is not originally 
empowered to give. 

17. When a decision on a point of law is 
made by a presiding elder in a district or quar- 
terly conference, and action follows which affects 
the membership of a member of that confer- 
ence, such action is final, provided that no ap- 
peal is taken to the president of the next 
annual conference. (Bishop Hamline.) 

18. No accused lay member can take an 
appeal until he is excluded from the Church. 
But when he is once expelled, the act of ex- 
pulsion stands until the decision is reversed, on 
appeal, by the quarterly conference. The per- 
son thus expelled, though he takes an appeal, 
cannot enjoy any privileges of society until the 
decision of the appellate court. And if the 
quarterly report be read before the appeal is 
tried, and the decision reversed, the preacher in 
charge is bound to read him out among those 
excluded from the Church according to Dis- 
cipline. If the decision is reversed by the 
quarterly conference, the preacher in charge 



142 CHURCH TRIALS. [Chap. Y," 

should announce before the society that the 
person is restored to membership by the act of 
the quarterly conference. (Bishop Morris.) 

19. When an appeal is taken from the de- 
cision of an ecclesiastical court, that fact should 
be entered upon the records of the trial ; and 
the presiding officer is required to present such 
records, and all the documents relating to the 
case, to the appellate court. When a traveling 
preacher, however, has been tried and taken an 
appeal, it is the duty of the secretary of the 
annual conference to preserve the minutes of 
the trial, and all the documents relating to it, 
and transmit them, at the proper time, to the 
judicial conference. 

20. When an appellant does not appear per- 
sonally, or by a representative, to prosecute his 
appeal, it goeS by default. (Bishop Ames.) 

21. If in the examination of an appeal the 
presiding elder discover that the trial below 
was informally conducted, he has no authority 
to throw out the case, prevent the decision of 
the conference, and declare the person not 
expelled. The appeal is not to the presiding 
elder, but to the quarterly conference. 



Sec. XI.] CHUKCH TRIALS. 143 

22. If, in the judgment of the presiding elder, 
because of local prejudice an impartial trial can- 
not be had in the quarterly conference of the 
circuit or station where the appellant resides, he 
may, on the demand of either party, cause the 
appeal to be tried by any other quarterly con- 
ference within his district, after due notice to 
the complainant and appellant. 

Section XI. — New Trial. 

1. It is not in accordance with our usages for 
a presiding officer to order, under any circum- 
stances, a new trial; but an appellate court 
may remand an appeal case for a new trial. 

2. If the preacher in charge differs in judg- 
ment from the majority of the society, or the 
select number, concerning the guilt or inno- 
cence of an accused member, the trial may be 
referred, by the preacher in charge, to the ensu- 
ing quarterly conference. But this reference 
of the trial does not place the case before the 
quarterly conference for adjudication ; it is 
simply a petition for a new trial, and the quar- 
terly conference may grant or reject it accord- 
ing to their best judgment. (Discipline, "§ 348.) 

3. When the case is remanded for a new 
trial, it should proceed as if no trial had pre- 



144 CHURCH TRIALS. [Chap. IT, 

viously been held. There must be a new pres- 
entation of charges and specifications, a new- 
notifying of the party, hearing of witnesses, and 
rendering of verdict. Any of the original 
charges and specifications may be withdrawn, 
and new charges and specifications may be 
added. New evidence may be produced, and 
such documentary testimony as has been taken 
according to Discipline, and admitted in the 
first trial, may be introduced in the new trial. 
(Gen. Conf. Jour., 1848, p. 129.) 

It would be a flagrant proceeding for the 
adjudicating body, when a case is remanded for 
a new trial, to re-expel a member on a verdict 
of guilt rendered at a previous trial, without a 
new hearing of testimony. (Bishop Hedding.) 

4. In the following cases it would be highly 
proper for the appellate court to grant a -new 
trial. 

a. When the minutes of the trial are so im- 
perfect that the true merits of the case cannot 
be learned from them. 

h. In case of maladministration, or incorrect 
ruling of the presiding officer. 

c. When there have been any improprieties 
in the select committee, such as determining 
their verdict by casting lots ? or by basing it 



Sec. XII. J LOCAL PREACHERS. 115 

upon documents which were sent to them, but 
were not read in the trial. 

d. When new and material evidence has been 
discovered. A new trial should not be granted 
for mere cumulative evidence. 

Section XII. — Trial of Local Preachers. 

1. A local preacher, deacon, or elder, is 
amenable to the district conference, where one 
is held, otherwise to the quarterly conference, 
for the faithful performance of the functions of 
his office ; and in case of manifest neglect of 
duty should be treated the same as in cases of 
improper tempers, words, and actions. The 
person thus offending should be reprehended by 
his senior in office ; and should he fail to re- 
form, one, two, or three faithful friends should 
be taken as witnesses. If he still persists in his 
neglect of duty, the conference may proceed to 
try him, and deprive him of his ministerial 
office. 

2. When a local elder, deacon, or preacher is 
reported to be guilty^of some crime expressly 
forbidden in the word of God, it is made the 
duty of the preacher in charge to call him 
before a committee of local preachers, by whom 
he shall be acquitted, or, if found guilty, sua- 

10 



146 CHURCH TRIALS. [Chap. V, 

pended until the next district or quarterly con- 
ference, as the case may be. " It requires the 
preacher in charge," says Bishop Morris, " to 
proceed on mere report, whether there be any 
formal charges or not ; to call a committee, 
which is of the nature of a court of inquiry, 
to ascertain whether or not there be cause of 
trial ; and if so, it must go to the district or the 
quarterly conference, as the case may be, the 
only tribunal that has authority to try the case. 
And in all practicable cases the preacher in 
charge should inquire into complaints against 
local preachers, by a committee, before they 
come into the conference, or be held responsible 
for this neglect of duty. But if he neglect it, or 
fail to obtain a committee, or fail for want of 
time, that neglect or failure does not deprive 
the conference of its legal authority to try a local 
preacher on charges of immorality." 

3. Bishop Hedding remarks: "Great care 
should be taken to appoint a wise, prudent, and 
impartial committee, consisting, if practicable, 
of more than three. All suitable means should 
be employed to have a thorough and fair inves- 
tigation. And as the final trial of a local 
preacher is by a body of men most of whom are 
usually laymen, it is desirable that this com- 



Sec. XII.] LOCAL PREACHERS. 147 

mittee should be composed of as many as seven 



or nine." 



4. Tlie committee of local preachers may be 
called from anv circuit or district in the con- 
ference. The rule of 1796 required that the 
local preachers in the neighborhood should be 
called to constitute this committee. In 1820 
they were required to belong to the circuit or 
district. In 1836 all restrictions in this respect 
were taken away. 

5. The mode of conducting an investigation 
by a committee, in the case of an accused local 
preacher, is similar to that of the trial of a 
member before described. The preacher in 
charge must preside, and cause exact minutes 
of the charges, specifications, testimony, and 
examination to be taken; and if the accused is 
found guilty, these, together with the decision 
of the committee, must be laid by him before 
the district conference where one is held, other- 
wise before the quarterly conference. 

6. The acquittal or suspension of a local 
preacher, in the primary examination, is by the 
committee, and not by the preacher in charge. 



148 CHURCH TRIALS, [Chap. V, 

7* The examination before a committee is 
not a trial proper on the merits of the ease ; 
and hence, if a local preacher is acquitted by the 
committee, charges and specifications, founded 
upon the same reports, may be preferred against 
him at the district conference where one is 
held, otherwise at the quarterly conference, 
and he be expelled, if they judge him guilty of 
crime. 

8. The mode of conducting the trial of a local 
preacher is the same as that above described. 
The president must appoint a secretary to take 
regular minutes of the evidence of the trial ; 
" which minutes, when read and approved, 
shall be signed by the president, and also by the 
members of the conference who are present, or 

by a majority of them." 

«. 

9. The district conference, where one is held, 
or, if no such conference be held, then the quar- 
terly conference, holds original jurisdiction over 
local preachers, and hence its decision wi 1 1 not 
be governed by the primary investigation. Tes- 
timony may, in first examinations, have been 
rejected which the president of the quarterly 
conference judges to be admissible ; and testi- 
mony may have been admitted which should be 



Sec. XII.] LOCAL PREACHERS. 149 

rejected. Any additional testimony which either 
party may have obtained may be presented. 

10. If the accused refuse or neglect to appear, 
either before the investigating committee or the 
conference, he may be tried in his absence. 

11. The conference having jurisdiction alone 
awards punishment in the trial of local preach- 
ers. Suspension by the investigating committee 
is not a penalty judicially awarded, but a public 
arrest of character until the case can be exam- 
ined before the proper tribunal. The president 
cannot expel a local preacher ; he merely an- 
nounces the decision of the conference. 

12. If a local preacher has been expelled, and 
has taken an appeal to the annual conference, a 
subsequent district or quarterly conference can- 
not reconsider its action, and restore the local 
preacher. If a subsequent conference should 
reconsider the act of a former session, and re- 
store one whom they had expelled, for the same 
reason they might reconsider and condemn a 
man whom they had previously acquitted. And 
if they could reconsider the act of the last con- 
ference, they might reconsider an act passed 
years before. (Bishop Hedding.) 



150 CHURCH TRIALS. [Chap. V, 

13. When a local preacher has been brought 
to trial before a district or a quarterly confer- 
ence, and the evidence has been taken, and the 
pleadings closed, it is not lawful for the confer- 
ence to adjourn, and leave the decision of the 
case to the next conference. 

14. A district or a quarterly conference has 
no authority to alter the language of any charge 
or specification without the consent of the par- 
ties. 

15. When the property of a local preacher 
has accumulated so rapidly as to cause some to 
suspect that he is not acquiring it honestly, the 
district or the quarterly conference, of which he 
is a member, has no authority, to demand of him 
a statement of the amount of his property, and 
of the manner in which it has been acquired. 
If he is suspected of dishonesty, he may be ar- 
raigned ; but the accuser must produce testi- 
mony to sustain the charge. No man can be 
compelled to witness against himself. (Ref. 
Bishop Soule.) 

16. When the matters involved in a bill of 
charges, presented against a member, local or 
traveling preacher, in whole or any material 



Sec. XIL] LOCAL PREACHEBS. 151 

part, are pending before a civil or criminal 
court, it is frequently advisable to lay the case 
over until the trial is decided by the legal tri- 
bunal. Equity seems to demand it. If in this 
case the. local preacher has been suspended by 
a committee, and the case is brought before 
the ensuing district or quarterly conference for 
trial, — if the conference believe that the charges 
cannot be fullv investigated until after the suits 
pending before the civil tribunals are termi- 
nated, — it is competent to adjourn the case until 
after such trial. The results, however, of a crim- 
inal prosecution ought not to exert any influence 
on the results of the ecclesiastical investigation. 
Equity and the honor of the Church might de- 
mand the conviction and expulsion of the per- 
son whom the civil law had cleared. 

17. The fact that a member of a quarterly 
conference has been employed as counsel in a 
civil suit against a local preacher does not dis- 
qualify him from acting and voting as a mem- 
ber of the district or the quarterly conference, 
in the trial of the local preacher on charges 
involving the material facts pending in the civil 
court. Every member of a district or of a quar- 
terly conference, except while he himself is being 
tried, may exercise every right, and perform 



152 CHURCH TRIALS. [Chap. Y, 

every act appertaining to his office, as a mem- 
ber of the conference, if it has no respect to his 
own personal interests. 

18. When charges are preferred against a 
preacher on trial, the presiding elder has a right 
to decide under which provision of T 331-335 
of the Discipline the case shall be tried. 



Section XIII. — Trial of Traveling Preachers. 

1. The nature of the investigation of an ac- 
cused traveling preacher, by a committee, in 
the interval of an annual conference, is the same 
as that of a local preacher, above described. 
It is strictly preliminary in its character. The 
committee can merely suspend from ministerial 
services and Church privileges until the ensuing 
annual conference, 

2. Bishop M'Kendree remarks : " The great 
object of committees is to attend to complaints, 
or charges, in the intervals of conferences, and 
thereby secure the character of innocent breth- 
ren, wrongfully accused, from reproach and in- 
jury ; or by suspending [such as are adjudged 
guilty] until the ensuing conference. And it 
may be further remarked that neither the or- 



\ 



Sec. XIII-] TRAVELING PREACHERS. 153 

ganization of a committee, nor any of their acts, 
can abridge the powers of a conference, when 
they afterward come to sit on the same case. 
And should a case occur at or during the sit- 
ting of a conference, or. although known of, be 
neglected ; or, if it should be of such recent 
date as not to afford time to call a committee, 
and should then be brought before the confer- 
ence, there is nothing in the Discipline, or rea- 
son, to prevent the conference from hearing and 
deciding thereon, without the intervention of 
a committee; and especially if the person ac- 
cused desire it. But as the conference has the 
entire control of all cases in which its own mem- 
bers are concerned, subject to the order of Dis- 
cipline, they may, or they may not, appoint a 
committee, as they may judge proper." 

The Restrictive Eules provide that ministers 
or preachers shall have the privilege " of trial 
by a committee." This implies that preachers 
shall not be suspended in the interval of confer- 
ence, as they formerly were, without the inves- 
tigation and action of a committee : but it was 
not intended to abridge the powers of an annual 
conference, — it has original jurisdiction over its 
members. 

3, If the charge be preferred at the confer- 



154 CHUECH TRIALS. [Chap. V, 

ence, the case may be referred to a committee, 
in the presence of a presiding elder, or a mem- 
ber, appointed by the bishop in his stead. In 
the latter case, the person so appointed possesses 
all the powers of a presiding elder in an investi- 
gating committee. 

4. An annual conference has a right, when 
charges are preferred against one of its number, 
and the case cannot be tried during its session, 
for want of testimony, to refer it to the presid- 
ing elder who may have charge of him, under 
the rule for the trial of immoral ministers, in the 
interval of an annual conference. When cases 
are thus referred, the committee possesses no 
more authority than when it is called, in the 
interval of conference, by the presiding elder. 
It can only suspend ; and the ensuing annual 
conference must determine the case. If a 
specific charge only is referred, the committee 
must restrict its examination to that particu- 
lar point ; but if the case of a preacher is refer- 
red, the committee may examine any charge 
which may be preferred against him. 

5. The acquittal of an accused traveling 
preacher by the investigating committee, as in 
the case of a local preacher, does not prevent 



Sec. XIII] TRAVELING PREACHERS. 155 

the same charges being preferred, and a trial 
held before the annual conference, to which he 
is originally amenable. 

6. If the preacher is found guilty by the 
committee, he must be suspended by it, and not 
by the presiding elder. The penitence of the 
convicted cannot prevent suspension. 

7. If a committee is appointed to investigate 
the case of an accused preacher, and report to 
the next conference,. if the conference is divided, 
and the committee falls into different confer- 
ences, its powers remain the same until its re- 
port is heard and accepted. 

8. When a presiding elder is called to preside 
at the investigation of an accused presiding 
elder, he possesses the same powers as when 
investigating the case of an accused traveling 
preacher on his district. He may appoint the 
committee, £nd the time and place of holding 
the investigation. The committee should be 
called from the district of the accused presiding 
elder, unless special reasons exist why it should 
not be done, 

9. A presiding elder may appoint the place 
for the investigation of the case of an accused 



156 CHUECH TKIALS. [Chap. Y, 

traveling preacher beyond the limits of his 
district, when, in his judgment, the circum- 
stances demand it. 

10. A presiding elder cannot call a traveling- 
preacher before an investigating committee, ex- 
cept (1) when he " is under report of being 
guilty of some crime expressly forbidden in the 
word of God as an unchristian practice, sufficient 
to exclude a person from the kingdom of grace 
and glory ;" or (2) when he is not " cured " of 
improper tempers, words, bv actions on the first 
and second admonition : or (3) when he "holds 
and disseminates doctrines which are contrary to 
our Articles of Religion," and will not " sol- 
emnly engage not to disseminate such erroneous 
doctrines, in public or in private ;" or (4) when 
he ceases to travel without the consent of the 
annual conference. Complaints of maladmin- 
istration must go primarily before the annual 
conference. (Discipline, ^[329.) The presiding 
eider can only remove such from the charge as 
do not administer Discipline correctly. 

11. The form of trial, in the case of a local or 
traveling preacher, is the same as that of a 
member, except in the mode of rendering the 
verdict, The quarterly and annual conferences 



Sec. XIIL] TRAVELING PREACHERS. 1ST 

vote first upon the question whether the sev- 
eral specifications, in order, under each charge, 
are sustained, and then upon the charge, with- 
out bringing in a written verdict. 

12. If an accused traveling preacher does not 
appear, either before the committee or the 
annual conference, the same formality should 
be observed in his trial as if he were present. 
Competent counsel should be appointed to con- 
duct his case, and accurate minutes should be 
kept, 

13. When a preacher has been tried in an 
annual conference, and suspended for one year, 
the conference cannot at the expiration of that 
time expel him for the same offense, or continue 
the suspension for another period. When a 
member has suffered the punishment which was 
adjudged by the conference, at the time of his 
trial, he is deemed clear by the law. (Bishop 
Hedding.) 

14. A preacher under suspension by a com- 
mittee, called by a presiding elder, has no right 
to vote on any question, at the ensuing annual 
conference, previously to the examination of his 
ease. His suspension, being in accordance with 



158 CHURCH TBIALS. [Chap. V, 

the provisions of the Discipline, continues until 
it is removed by the conference. 

15. When a traveling preacher is accused of 
being so unacceptable, inefficient, or secular, as 
to be no longer useful in his work, there must 
be the same formality of trial, — specifications, 
witnesses, record of testimony, etc., — as in the 
case of immorality. A charge of unacceptability 
can be tried at an annual conference in the ab- 
sence of the accused preacher, even when no 
previous notice has been given. It is a specific 
rule of discipline that every traveling preacher 
shall undergo an annual examination of charac- 
ter ; and it is expected that every member will 
be present at the session of the conference. In 
case of location without consent, as well as ex- 
pulsion, the aggrieved party is allowed an ap- 
peal to the judicial conference. But it cannot 
be too strongly urged, that in all cases where 
the character of a brother is to be arrested, 
or his relation changed in the ministry, due 
notice should be previously given, and efforts 
made to remove the embarrassments. 

16. The secretary of an annual conference 
must carefully take all the testimony given in 
the annual conference; documentary testimony 



Sec. XIV] CHURCH OFFENSES. 159 

need not be spread upon the journals of the 
conference, but must be properly filed and pre- 
served. In case of trial, a copy of the charges, 
specifications, and the final action of the con- 
ference, should be entered on the principal 
conference journal, and such references made 
to all the testimony and documents used in the 
trial, that they may be readily found and clearly 
identified. 

17. A committee appointed by an annual 
conference to try a traveling minister is not 
authorized to hold its sessions after the final 
adjournment of the conference. The committee 
of trial is the representative of the annual con- 
ference, and subject to its laws of action ; and 
hence cannot perpetuate its existence after the 
official adjournment of the body which created 
it.— Gen. Conf. Jour., 1864, p. 232. 

Section XIY —Church Offenses. 

1. In every Church trial it should be defi- 
nitely stated under what rule of discipline the 
case is to be tried. 

2. All actionable offenses may be brought 
under one of the following rules : 



160 CHURCH TRIALS. [Chap. V, 

a. A crime expressly forbidden by the word 
of God, sufficient to exclude a person from the 
kingdom of grace and glory. 

h. Neglect of duties and of the means of 
grace; imprudent conduct; indulging sinful 
words, tempers, or actions ; the buying, selling, 
or using of intoxicating liquors as a beverage, 
dancings playing at games of chance, attending 
theaters, horse-races, circuses, dancing-parties, 
or patronizing dancing-schools, or taking such 
other amusements as are obviously of misleading 
or questionable moral tendency, or disobedience 
to the order and discipline of the Church. 

c. Endeavoring to sow dissensions in our 
societies by inveighing against either our doc- 
trines or discipline. 

d. Behaving dishonestly in business transac- 
tions, or contracting debts without a probability 
of paying them. 

e. Refusing to refer to arbitration disputed 
pecuniary questions^ when recommended by the 
preacher in charge ; refusing to abide by the 
judgment of arbiters ; entering into law-suits 
with another member, against the provisions 
of the Discipline. 

3. If the offense belong to the first class, no 
Church labor is necessary before the presenta- 



Sec. XIV.] CHURCH OFFENSES. 161 

tion of the charge ; in all other cases specific 
preliminary steps must be taken. 

4. If a preacher holds and disseminates doc- 
trines contrary to Our Articles of Religion, and 
persists therein, he may be suspended by a 
committee, and tried at the annual conference. 
If his error, however, is a mere matter of 
opinion, not embraced in our -Articles of Re- 
ligion, he may be borne with in the interval 
of conference, and his case brought before the 
annual conference. 

The twenty-five Articles of Religion do not 
embrace all that is included in " our present 
existing and established standards of doctrine." 
Many of the characteristic doctrines of our 
Church are not even referred to directly in those 
articles. Many of our leading articles of relig- 
ion are expressed in a negative form, and have 
special reference to the errors of the Papal 
Church. Bishop Burnet remarks, that since 
" the Church of Rome owns all that is positive 
in our doctrine, there could be no discrimination 
made but by condemning the most important 
additions which they have brought into the 
Christian religion in express words." The Dis- 
cipline does not expressly state what are our 

" established standards of doctrine ; " but usage 

11 



162 CHURCH TRIALS. |"Cbap. Y, 

and general consent would probably designate 
Mr. Wesley's Sermons, and his Notes on the 
New Testament, and "Watson's Theological In- 
stitutes. 



5. The rule respecting members of our Church 
inveighing against our doctrines and discipline 
is not to be understood in the sense that they 
must be brought before a committee, and found 
guilty of this offense, before they can even be 
reproved by the senior minister of the circuit. 
The reproof is to be given, not as a judicial act 
by the adjudicating body, but simply as the act 
of the pastor, in the- faithful discharge of the 
duties of the pastorate, and to be performed by 
him when he is clearly convinced that the ac- 
cused has really endeavored to sow dissensions 
in the Church. If the member " persists in such 
pernicious practices " after reproof is thus ad- 
ministered, he should be brought to trial on 
a complaint setting forth the nature of his 
offense, 



6. When a charge of slander is preferred by 
one member against another, it is lawful for the 
accused to prove the truth of his statements as 
a ground of justification. 



Sec. XV.l PENALTY. 163 

7. But when a member is accused of uttering 
sinful words in reference to a member, it is not 
lawful to attempt to prove their truthfulness. 



8. No charges for slander can be received 
except from the person alleged to be slandered, 
or from his representative ; but charges involv- 
ing defamation of character received from other 
persons must be for evil-speaking, and the truth 
of such declarations cannot be given in evidence, 
as it would involve an absent person. 



Section XY— Penalty. 

1. Church penalty is designed to operate as 
a motive upon the members to observe correct 
moral conduct, and to declare the purity of 
the Church by her efforts to maintain correct 
principles. To secure these objects it is not so 
necessary that the punishment should be severe 
as that it should be certain. It is impossible 
to graduate the punishment according to the 
true demerit of the offense, and hence as mild 
measures should be pursued as possible, and 
yet show that the Church does not connive at 
sin, and seek to conceal corruption rather than 
to purge it away. 



164: CHURCH TRIALS. [Chap. V 

2. The following awards should be given, 
according to different circumstances : 

a. A declaration of the guilt of the accused, 
while forgiveness is extended to the penitent. 

b. Censure, or reproof. 

c. Suspension. 

d. Expulsion. 

3. Forgiveness. The- Church is competent to 
forgive an offender, when the ends of moral dis- 
cipline can be promoted by it. ' Bishop Hed- 
ding remarks : " It is asked, Must he expel in 
all cases ? Is there no room for pardon ? For 
scandalous crimes expulsion should undoubtedly 
take place ; but for crimes of a moderate degree, 
and when the offender is suitably humble and 
penitent, forgiveness and forbearance should be 
exercised, and a repentant brother may be re- 
tained in the Church. ' Brethren, if any man 
be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual 
restore such a "one in the spirit of meekness.' 
Gal. vi, 1, That the rule is to be so understood 
is evident from a clause in the General Rules, 
thirty-sixth page : ' If there be any among us 
who observe them not, who habitually break 
any of them, let it be known unto them who 
watch, over that soul as they who must give an 
account. We will bear with him for a season, 



Sec. XY.] PENALTY. 165 

but if then he repent not, he hath no more place 
among us ; we have delivered our souls.' "—Dis- 
course on Discipline, pp. 66. 67. " In exercising 
mercy, in this case, the preacher will need great 
prudence to avoid doing it in a way to grieve 
and afflict the members, or cast a stumbling- 
block before the world. On this question he 
should take counsel with the select number, or 
the leaders 5 meeting, or in some cases with the 
society in the place, that it may be understood 
that the offender is restored by general con- 
sent." — Discourse on Discipline, pp. 68, 69. 

Bishop M'Kendree remarks : " When a person 
is clearly convicted of such a crime or crimes, 
(such as are expressly forbidden in the word of 
God.) nothing short of expulsion will satisfy the 
rule, unless there be such a manifestation of 
genuine repentance and humiliation as will fully 
justify the restoration of the offending person : 
in such a case the connection between crime and 
its punishment is dissolved. Such cases may 
possibly occur, and when they do, much care 
and prudence are necessary to guard the Church 
from reproach and injury, and at the same time 
to save the offender." 

4. That the Discipline contemplates that cen- 
sure and suspension may be inflicted as a Church 



168 CHUKCH TRIALS. [Chap. V, 

penalty upon disorderly members, as well as 
upon convicted local and traveling preachers, 
is evident from various considerations. The 
heading of the section respecting disorderly 
members was, in its first introduction into the 
Discipline in 1789, " Of bringing to trial, find- 
ing guilty, reproving, suspending, or excluding 
disorderly persons," etc. The section relating 
to the "sale and use of spirituous liquors," 
which formed a part of the Discipline from 
1796 to 1840, provided that an accused person 
should " be cleared, censured, suspended, or ex- 
cluded, according to his conduct, as on other 
charges of immorality." 



5. Ko member can be suspended for a partic- 
ular offense without a regular trial according to 
Discipline ; and no preacher can be suspended 
by an annual conference beyond the period of 
one year. 

6. When a bill of charges is correctly drawn, 
the penalty must be based upon the charges 
which are sustained against the accused. No 
member can be punished for any higher offense 
than is charged against him in the bill ; but 
punishment may be awarded for any lower of- 



Sec. XV.] PENALTY. 167 

fense, of which he is convicted, in the specifi- 
cations which are sustained against him. 

7. " It has been asked," remarks Bishop Hed- 
ding, " Has a preacher a right to keep members 
of the Church, who have not been tried or cen- 
sured, out of love-feast, or to repel them from 
the Lord's Supper, for any little irregularity in 
dress, or otherwise, which he may perceive in 
them at any time ? No ; in ordinary cases he 
has no such right : he may not punish members 
except as the law directs. Yet there may be 
extraordinary cases which might admit of this 
measure, from his authority as a minister, with- 
out any direct rule. For example : a member 
is- known to have committed a scandalous crime, 
and there has not been time to call him to 
trial in the regular way. He comes to love- 
feast, or to the holy sacrament ; in these cir- 
cumstances the minister may repel him." — Dis- 
course on Discipline, p. 72. 

8. When a preacher is judged guilty of mal- 
administration by an annual conference, censure 
and reproof are the highest penalty which they 
can inflict. 

9. When a member or preacher has been 
expelled, according to due form of Discipline, 



168 CHURCH TRIALS. [Chap. T, 

he cannot afterward enjoy the privileges of so- 
ciety and of sacraments, in our Church, without 
contrition, confession, and satisfactory reforma- 
tion ; but if, however, the society become con- 
vinced of the innocence of an expelled lay 
member, lie may again be received on trial 
without confession. No expelled member can 
be received again into full membership without 
a subsequent probation. 

10. When an annual conference decides that 
a preacher having charge has expelled a member 
contrary to the provisions of the Discipline, 
such decision restores the person so expelled to 
Church-membership. The conference must de- 
cide within what time the alleged maladminis- 
tration must have taken place, to bring it prop- 
erly before them. (Gen. Conf. Jour., 1852, p. 73.) 

11. If the society or select number renders a 
verdict of guilty, it is not optional with the 
preacher whether he will expel him : as an ad- 
ministrator of the Discipline, he must pronounce 

. the penalty of the law. The Discipline says, 
" Let the preacher in charge expel him." An 
exception, however, should be made in those 
cases where, in view of peculiar palliating cir- 
cumstances, or the deep penitence of the accused, 



See. XV.] PENALTY. 169 

the committee or society recommends that he be 
still further borne with. 

12. The practice of requiring a public per- 
sonal confession before the Church, or threatening 
expulsion if it is not made, is of doubtful expe- 
diency. If the accused is really penitent, this 
can be ascertained in some other mode. The 
Church, when not under the peculiar sympathy 
which the presence of the offender might pro- 
duce, is better prepared to decide whether the 
concessions and acknowledgments of the accused 
are sufficient to secure the honor of the Church 
if expulsion is not inflicted. Many persons, 
especially under the mortification of the alleged 
offense, arc wholly incapable of making an 
appropriate statement to the Church in person. 

13. It is made the duty of the preacher in 
charge, at every quarterly meeting, to read the 
names of those who have been excluded from 
the Church during the preceding quarter ; but 
the Discipline does not contemplate that their 
crimes — the grounds of Church action — shall be 
publicly announced, nor that any unusual pub- 
licity should be given to the fact of expulsion. 
When persons are thus read out of the society 
in the hearing of those who have an interest in 



170 - CHURCH TRIALS. [Chap. V, 

the communication, and a right to know the 
action of the Church, it is not legal defamation 
of character, nor prima facie evidence of malice. 

14:. When a member is found guilty of im- 
prudent conduct, and required to make confes- 
sion, and refuses to comply, the preacher can- 
not expel him without a further trial before a 
committee, showing that he does not comply. 



Section" XYI. — Arbitration. 

1. In 1781 it was made the duty of the as- 
sistant, at the quarterly meeting, to consult with 
the steward in appointing proper persons to ex- 
amine into the circumstances where there was 
a dispute respecting pecuniary matters ; and if 
there was suspicion of injustice, or inability, in 
the referees, to appoint men of more skill and 
probity : and the parties were then required to 
abide by their decision, or be excluded from the 
society. 

In 1784 the Discipline required the assistant 
to consult with the stewards and leaders, and 
appoint referees, whose decision was final ; and 
the party refusing to abide by it was to be ex- 
pelled, unless there appeared to the assistant 
some fraud or gross mistake in the decision ; in 



Sec. XVI.] ARBITRATION. 171 

which case he was to appoint new referees for 
a rehearing of the case, and the decision of this 
tribunal was to be absolutely final. 

2. Under our present rule, the authority of 
the preacher is greatly diminished ; yet he has 
discretionary power to decide — 

a. Whether the circumstances require any 
action. The rule does not oblige him to recom- 
mend arbitration, unless he judges that the 
case is such as strictly to demand such investi- 
gation. 

b. If proceedings should be commenced, un- 
der what rule of Discipline the action should be 
brought, — whether it is an immorality, an in- 
discretion, or a dispute respecting the payment 
of debts, etc. (Bishop Morris.) 

3. The phrase " business transactions 55 is to 
be restricted entirely to pecuniary matters. But 
it embraces them in all their forms, whether 
relating to real or personal estate, debts, de- 
mands, accounts, or contracts. 

4. The arbiters to whom the case is referred 
must be members of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church ; but the arbitration does not assume 
the form of a trial, and it is not necessary that 



172 CHUECH TRIALS. [Chap. V, 

the arbiters should belong to the society with 
which either of the parties is connected. 

5. The preacher in charge should preside at 
the arbitration, when both of the parties belong 
to the same society. If they belong to different 
societies, Christian and ministerial etiquette 
would seem to require that the senior preacher 
should preside. 

6. Order of conducting an arbitration. 
a. Religious services. 

h. Appointment of secretary by the referees. 

c. The complainant makes his statement, in- 
troducing such testimony as he deems proper. 

d. The defendant makes his answer, and in- 
troduces his testimony. 

e. Rebutting testimony by the complainant. 

f. Rebutting testimony by the defendant. 

g. Closing arguments, — 
(1.) By the complainant. 
(2.) By the defendant. 

h. The parties should then retire, and the 
decision should be written and signed by the 
referees. 

7. The rule does not require our members to 
arbitrate when the other party is not a member 
of our Church. 



Sec. XVI.] ARBITRATION. 173 

8. When a dispute respecting pecuniary mat- 
ters arises between a member of our Church and 
a firm or corporation, to which one or more 
members of our Church belongs, the rule re- 
specting arbitration does not apply ; for the 
corporation, as such, is not under the control of 
the Church. For any unjustifiable business 
transaction, performed by the member, or by 
the firm, which the member could have con- 
trolled, he should be held strictly accountable. 

9. A member refusing to arbitrate when rec- 
ommended to do so by the preacher in charge, 
renders himself liable to expulsion from the 
Church ; but in this, as in all other cases, he 
cannot be expelled until a select number, in due 
form, declare that he refuses to arbitrate, or has 
violated some express rule of Church covenant. 

10. If a preacher or member shall enter into a 
lawsuit with another member before the matter 
is submitted to arbitration, he does so on his 
own responsibility ; and, if arrested, must show 
that the case was of such a nature as to require 
and justify a process at law. 

11. The inspecting of the accounts of those 
who " fail in business," and the calling of a 



174 CHUKCH TRIALS. [Chap. V, 

debtor before a committee, to show cause why 
he does not make payment, are not Church 
trials ; and a member cannot, be expelled merely 
on those examinations, whatever fraud and dis- 
honesty those examinations may disclose. But 
if these examinations should disclose frauds, a 
bill of charges should be formed from them, 
and the accused brought to trial, in due form, 
before a select committee. 



Sec. I.J CHURCHES AND PARSONAGES. 175 



CHAPTER YI. 
CHURCH PROPERTY. 

Section I. — Building Churches and Parsonages. 

1. The Discipline expressly discountenances 
the incurring of heavy liabilities in the erection 
of churches and parsonages. Hence it is made 
the duty of the quarterly conference, where it is 
contemplated to build a house of worship, to 
secure the lot on which such house is to be 
erected,* according to our deed of settlement ; 
and also "to appoint a judicious committee of, 
at least, three members of our Church, to form 
an estimate of the amount necessary to build ; 
and three fourths of the money, according to 
such estimate, must be secured, or subscribed, 
before any such building shall be commenced." 
" In all cases where debts for building houses of 
worship have been, or may be, incurred contrary 
to, or in disregard of, the above recommendation, 
our members and friends are requested to dis- 
countenance, by declining pecuniary aid to, all 
agents who travel beyond their own circuits or 
districts for the collection of funds for the dia- 



176 



CHUECH PROPERTY. 



[Chap, VI, 



charge of such debts, except in such peculiar 
cases as may be approved by an annual confer- 
ence, or such agents as may be appointed by 
their authority." 



2. "When a number of persons have associated 
themselves together, in pursuance of the statute, 
for the purpose of erecting a meeting-house, 
and appointed three or more of their number a 
building committee, to superintend the erection 
of the house, the mere acceptance of the ap- 
pointment does not amount to a personal un- 
dertaking, on the part of the committee, to 
build the house ; but the only effect is to con- 
stitute them the agents and representatives of 
the association, to act upon joint consideration 
and advice, with power to make all necessary 
contracts, and authorize all such expenditures 
as the purposes of the agency require. 

If the building committee are the agents of 
an unincorporated body, and in making their 
contracts do not pledge their individual credit 
and responsibility, they will not be held under 
a personal obligation for such indebtedness, if at 
the time of the contract the nature of their 
agency was definitely known. 

And if the committee should contract with 
one of their own number, they would as effect 



Sec, II.] TRUSTEES. 177 

ually bind the society as if they contracted with 
a stranger. (Ref. 3 Yt. Rep., 431; 2 Wash- 
burn, 593 ; 3 ibid., 405.) 

3. Where the articles of association provided 
that the whole expense of the house should be 
estimated on the whole number of pews, by ap- 
praisal, and that the subscribers should bid for 
their choice of pews, but that the average price 
of the pews should not exceed a certain sum, 
this could not be construed as limiting the 
amount to be expended by the building com- 
mittee in erecting the house ; and a member of 
the committee might recover for services and 
expenditures in erecting the building, notwith- 
standing the whole expense of the house ex- 
ceeded the amount which the pews would bring 
at the average price specified, if it could be* 
shown that the building committee had not de- 
parted from the general plan prescribed for the 
building. (Ibid.) 

Section II. — Trustees. 

1. All our Church property, such as meeting- 
houses, parsonages, and cemeteries, held accord- 
ing to Discipline, is vested in a board of trustees, 

who hold it in trust for the use of the members 

JL2 



178 CHURCH PROPERTY. [Chap. VI, 

of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The min- 
istry, either in their individual or associated ca- 
pacity, as Annual or General Conferences, have 
never claimed, nor do they hold, in law, any 
title to any chapel or parsonage by the deed of 
settlement. The fee of the land is vested in 
trustees, who hold the property in behalf of 
each respective society. The General Confer- 
ence claims merely the right to supply the 
pulpit, by such means as it shall elect, with 
duly accredited ministers and preachers of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, u who shall preach 
and expound God's holy word therein." The 
General Conference of 1796, referring to the 
deed of settlement, adopted the following sen- 
timents: "By which, we manifest to the whole 
world that the property of the preaching-houses 
will not be invested in the General Conference. 
But the preservation of our union, and the prog- 
ress of the work of God, indispensably require 
that the free and full use of the pulpit should be 
in the hands of the General Conference and the 
yearly conferences authorized by them. Of 
course, the traveling preachers who are in full 
connection, assembled in their conferences, are 
the patrons of the pulpits of our churches." — 
Gen. Conf. Jour., vol. i, p. 15. Whenever it 
becomes necessary, for the payment of debts, or 



Sec. II.] TRUSTEES. 179 

with a view to reinvestment, to make a sale of 
church property, the proceeds of the sale, after 
the payment of debts, must be applied to the 
purchase or improvement of other property for 
the same uses, and deeded to the Church in the 
same manner, according to the judgment of the 
quarterly conference for the use of the said 
society, 

2. Where the law of the State or Territory 
prescribes no specified mode of election, trustees 
must be elected annually by the fourth quar- 
terly conference of the circuit or station, upon 
the nomination of the preacher in charge, or the 
presiding elder of the district. 

In all meetings of trustees, thus appointed, 
the stationed preacher, by general usage, is ex 
officio the presiding officer. 

3. To be eligible as a trustee, a person must 
be, at least, twenty-one years of age, and a 
majority of every board of trustees must be 
members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 
Xo trustee can be ejected from office while he is 
in joint security for money, unless such relief be 
given him as is demanded, or the creditor will 
accept. 



180 CHURCH PROPERTY. [Chap. VI, 

• 

4. The great and paramount duty of trustees 
of religious corporations is to see that the tem- 
poralities committed to their charge are fully 
and fairly devoted to the purposes which the 
founders had in view in creating the trust. All 
their authority is necessarily subordinate to this 
end, and all exercise of it beyond the legitimate 
attainment of this end is usurpation. 

As the deed of settlement secures the use of 
the pulpit, " to preach and expound God's holy 
word therein," to such ministers and preachers 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church as the Gen- 
eral Conference shall duly authorize, if the 
trustees should refuse to receive them, and shut 
the doors of the church against them, the court 
would issue a peremptory mandamus command- 
ing them to admit the preacher thus appointed 
into the church. 

It is no valid excuse for the trustees to say 
that a majority of the members of the Church 
direct them to close the doors, and sustain them 
in the act. " They are not chosen to represent 
that majority, but rather to execute the trust of 
carrying out the intention of those from whose 
benevolence flow the temporalities put in their 
. charge. If such an excuse will ever be availa- 
ble, where will it stop ? What shall set bounds 
to its encroachment? They from whose benev- 



Sec - n J TRUSTEES. 181 

olence lias arisen some pious foundation, or some 
noble charity, may have passed from the stage 
of life, leaving behind them some such monu- 
ment of their love to God and man, in the confi- 
dent expectation that the trust they have 
confided to posterity will be faithfully executed. 
Upon what principle can it be justified, that 
they who now live to enjoy the fruits of the 
charity of the dead should be permitted, at their 
caprice, to control, and perhaps divert from its 
original purpose, the endowment which owes 
none of its support to them ? No such principle 
is known in law or morals." — 2 Barbour, pp. 
414, 415. 

5. The trustees of an incorporated religious 
society are, mrtute officii, entitled to the posses- 
sion of all the temporalities of the society, and 
are considered as lawfully seized of the grounds 
and buildings of the Church ; and hence, if the 
trustees should close the doors of the church 
against the minister and congregation, they have 
no right to make a forcible entry into the church. 
The merit or demerit of the trustees in closing 
the doors of the church cannot be taken into 
consideration in this case. If the trustees have 
violated their trust, the society has ample reme- 
dy ; but this remedy does not consist in a forci- 



182 CHURCH PROPERTY. [Chap. VI, 

ble entry upon their possessions. While the 
trustees are in actual possession, the civil au- 
thority is bound to protect them against the 
unlawful and irregular intrusion of any persons, 
whether members of the Church or strangers. 
The trustees are responsible for the faithful dis- 
charge of their trust, not to a violent mob, but 
to the society, in a legal manner, whose inter- 
ests they serve. (Ref. 9 Johnson, 156.) 

6. A church is erected for the public worship 
of God, and the moral and religious instruction 
of the people ; and the trustees have no au- 
thority to make use of the church, at such inter- 
vals as it is not occupied by the pastor, for 
purposes at variance with the object for which 
it was erected, 

7. Trustees can legally protect the church 
property against all lawless violence and injury, 
even if the society has never been legally incor- 
porated, and may maintain an action against 
the trespasser for the injury which is done. 
(Eef. 9 Wendall, 414.) 

8. Where the officers of a religious corpora- 
tion are required by their charter to be annually 
elected, they would, probably, be allowed to 



Sec. IE] TRUSTEES. 183 

exercise their office after the expiration of the 
year, provided an election had not taken place 
to fill the vacancy. This case is provided for in 
some of the States by express statutes, and such 
Las been the general ruling of the courts. 

9. The power of trustees in the Methodist 
Episcopal Church seems to be restricted to the 
holding of real estate, and such personal prop- 
erty as has been raised or acquired for the bene- 
fit alone of the temporalities of the Church. 
They may take up subscriptions and collections 
for the purpose of creating church property, for 
the payment of debts previously contracted, and 
for repairing and improving the real estate of 
the society ; but they have no authority to for- 
bid the stewards raising voluntary contributions 
for the support of the Gospel and the various 
benevolent institutions of the Church, nor can 
they claim that the funds raised for these pur- 
poses, either in the Glasses or in the public con- 
gregation, shall be deposited in their hands. 
Our economy requires that these funds shall be 
disbursed by the stewards, and the trustees 
cannot exercise their powers in such a man- 
ner as to defeat the very purposes of their 
creation. (Bangs's His. M, E. Church, vol. iv ? 
pp. 175-181.) 



184 CHURCH PROPERTY. [Chap. YI, 

10. The board of trustees is responsible to the 
quarterly conference of the circuit or station, 
and is required to present a report, annually, of 
its acts during. the preceding year; hence the 
quarterly conference must see that all vacancies 
in the board of trust are duly filled, and that 
the corporation does not in any instance trans- 
cend its powers, or fail to discharge the obliga- 
tions of its trust. In case it is necessary to take 
any legal steps to check the action of the trust- 
ees, the quarterly conference is the proper body 
to give instruction upon this subj-ect. 

11. Corporations created for a specific object 
have no power to take and hold real estate for 
purposes wholly foreign to that object. (3 Pick- 
ering, 232-240.) 

Section III. — Pews. 

1. We do not propose in this section to con- 
sider the question of the propriety of building 
churches with pews ; but as such churches exist 
among us it is a practical question, "What is the 
nature of the claim which a pew-holder possesses 
to a pew in a house of worship % 

The society, or its representatives, the trustees, 
own the fee of the land on which the house is 



Sec. III.] PEWS. 185 

erected. By a grant of a pew ; the grantee ac- 
quires only a qualified usufructuary right. . He 
can claim no interest in the soil beneath his 
pew, nor in the space above it, nor an absolute 
claim to any part of the building itself. The 
society can control the soil, can construct a gal- 
lery and pews above him, and prevent the pew- 
holder from removing the material of his pew 
from the house. The right of the pew- owner 
is limited as to time. If the house be burned, 
or destroyed by time, the right is lost. The 
grant of a pew does not bind the society to pro- 
vide for the maintenance of public worship in 
the meeting-house ; but they may abandon it at 
pleasure, It is the opinion, also, of able jurists 
that the rights of a pew-owner are subject to 
the right of the society to remove the house to 
such a location as will best accommodate the 
whole congregation. In this case the value of 
the property is not diminished, but rather en- 
hanced by the more commodious location of the 
house. But the pew-owner does acquire the 
exclusive right to occupy his pew when the 
house is opened for public religious worship. 
He may exclude all other persons from his pew, 
by fastening the pew-door, provided he does not 
annoy those who occupy other pews in the 
house; and if a person enters a pew when lie 



186 CHURCH PROPERTY. [Chap. YI, 

knows that the owner forbids any such entry, 
he becomes a trespasser, and liable to an action 
for such entry. (See 17 Mass. Rep., 435 ; 1 Pick- 
ering, 102 ; 24 Pickering, 34.7 ; 4 K H. Rep., 
181, 182; 3 Washburn, 266, 277; 5 Metcalf, 
127 ; 5 Cowen, 496 ; 19 Pickering, 361.) 

2. When a meeting-house is conveyed to 
trustees for the use of a certain Church or soci- 
ety for a place of worship, and for no other use, 
intent, or purpose, whatsoever, and in the deeds 
of the pews to individuals the provisions of the 
conveyance of the house are referred to and 
recognized, the pew-owner has a right, probably, 
to the occupancy of his pew whenever the house 
is publicly opened, though it is opened for pur- 
poses different from those mentioned in the con- 
veyance ; nor can the trustees expel him from 
his pew on any public occasion. " It is the 
practice," however, as Judge Shaw remarks, 
" for religious societies to lend the use of their 
houses to various societies and philanthropic 
associations, to hold meetings for various pur- 
poses, and upon such occasions it has been usual 
for the body or association to whom the house 
is lent to control the use of the pews, without 
regard to particular owners. Perhaps loans of 
the use of bouses of worship may be resolved 



See. III.] PEWS. 187 

into a mere practice of courtesy on the part of 
religious societies, and of voluntary acquiescence 
on the part of pew-owners, not affecting the 
legal rights of either."— 5 Metcalfe 133. 

» 

3. No pew-owner has a right to use his pew 

for any purpose incompatible with the purpose 
for which the house was erected ; and if he 
should put any offensive covering over his pew, 
the trustees have a right to remove it; but if, 
in removing it, they should do any unnecessary 
injury to the pew, they would become liable to 
an action for trespass. (5 Metcalf, 127.) 

4. When a house of worship is taken down 
as a matter of necessity, because it has become 
ruinous, and wholly unfit for the purposes for 
which it was erected, the trustees are not liable 
to make any compensation to the pew-owners, 
but may take the avails of the materials of 
which the house was constructed for the purpose 
of erecting another house in its place ; but if 
the house is taken down to render it more con- 
venient and tasteful, or if in rebuilding the 
pews are destroyed for a useful purpose, an 
indemnity must probably be made to the pew- 
owner. (Ref. 3 Washburn, 266 ; 19 Pickering, 
361 ; 17 Mass. Rep., 435.) 



188 CHURCH PROPERTY. [Chap. VI, 

If, however, the trustees, after having taken 
all legal steps, should remove a pew, and make 
a tender to the owner of the value of his pew, 
his action would be barred for damages. (24 
Pickering, 347.) 

5. The interest of a person in a pew in a 
house of worship, although limited and qual- 
ified, yet is of such a character that a contract 
for a pew, for a period extending beyond one 
year, would probably be void unless reduced to 
writing. (16 Wendall, 28.) 

6. Pews are regarded in some States as real 
estate, in others as personal. In New Hamp- 
shire they are deemed personal property, and 
may be attached by leaving an attested copy of 
the writ, and of the officer's return thereon, 
with the town clerk of the town in which such 
meeting-house is, provided the debtor's interest 
in one pew, in any meeting-house in which he 
or his family usually worship, shall be exempt 
from attachment. (R. S., chap. 184.) 

7. Houses of worship, pews, and their furni- 
ture, are exempt from taxation in nearly all the 
States of the Union, 



Sec. III.] PEWS. 189 

8. Selling pews at auction. The auctioneer, 
though a trustee, is the agent for both parties — ■ 
for the purchaser, as explicitly as for the trustees. 
The bidder announces his bid for the purpose 
that the auctioneer may write his name. against 
the pew to be sold ; and when the entry is made 
the contract is signed by an agent for the pur- 
chaser, which renders it legally binding. But 
the memorandum of the sale must be perfect : 
the conditions must be specified, and all the 
papers must be attached together. The mere 
writing of the name of the purchaser on the 
ground-plan of the pews, with the amount which 
is bid, is not sufficient. (16 Wendall, 28.) 

9. Form of deed. In a quit-claim deed, of 
ordinary form, insert the following description : 

" The pew or seat in the Methodist Episcopal 

Church in the said L , which is numbered 

, with all the privileges and appurtenances, 

estate, right, title, interest, and property of us, 
or of either of us, whatsoever, as trustees for 
and in behalf of the said Methodist Episcopal 
society : reserving to the said Methodist Episco- 
pal society the sole use of the said church as a 
place of religious worship, according to the rules 
and discipline which from time to time may be 
agreed upon at their General Conferences; and 



190 CHUECH PROPERTY. [Chap. VI. 

also reserving to the said Methodist Episcopal 
society the sole use of the said pew during the 
holding of love-feasts, class-meetings, and such 
special Church meetings as the duly-authorized 
ministers of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
shall appoint ; and also reserving unto the said 
Methodist Episcopal society the right to levy 
a proportionate tax upon said pew for the nec- 
essary repairs and insurance of the house." 
Signed, sealed, witnessed, and acknowledged in 
due form. 



Section IV. — Subscription Papers. 

1. No particular form is required to render a 
subscription legal. The object and conditions 
of the subscription should be clearly and ex- 
plicitly stated, and it should be made payable to 
a body competent to contract. A pecuniary 
consideration need not to be mentioned to render 
the subscription valid : there should be implied 
mutual promises. The expending of money, or 
the undertaking by one party to accomplish an 
object which both desire, is a legal considera- 
tion for the promise of the other. * Subscriptions 
for the purchase or improvement of real estate 
should be made payable to the board of trust- 
ees, when such trustees exist. 



Sec. IT.] SUBSCRIPTION PAPERS. 191 

2. When a person, by a voluntary subscrip- 
tion, promises to pay in labor or materials, at 
his option, during another season, for the erec- 
tion of a public building, and who can be pre- 
sumed to know that the building is being 
erected, a demand on him for the labor or ma- 
terials, previous to the completion of the house, 
is not necessarv. A demand made after the 
building is finished is sufficient, if the payee is 
willing to receive such pay at the place where 
the building is erected, or at any other place 
equally convenient for the promiser. If the 
promiser. in such a case, wishes to free himself 
from his obligation, he must make an offer of 
payment to the committee appointed to erect 
said building, or to the person or persons to 
whom his subscription has been assigned. (Ref. 
2 Vt. Eeports, 48.) 

3. When a conditional subscription is drawn, 
it should be so expressed that the corporation 
should virtually be requested by the promiser 
to perform certain acts, or fulfill certain condi- 
tions. Instead of saying that the amount sub- 
scribed is not to be paid until $50,000 are 
subscribed, it should read, Provided the corpo- 
ration should procure subscriptions to the 
amount of §50,000, and should afterward invest 



192 CHURCH PROPERTY. [Chap. VI, 

the money in a particular mode. (Ref. 1 Corn- 
stock, pp. 581-585.) 

4. Fictitious subscriptions, obtained for the 
purpose of inducing others to subscribe more 
largely, render void those subscriptions which 
follow them. (1 Vt. Rep., 189-212.) 

5. When an authorized agent makes a deduc- 
tion in collecting a subscription to a person to 
whom he thinks it is entitled, it does not invali- 
date the other subscriptions. (Id.) 

6. If the purpose for which the subscription 
was raised was never attempted in any manner 
to be executed, the promiser would not be obli- 
gated to pay his subscription. 



Sec. I.] 



ALLOWANCE. 



193 



CHAPTEE VII. 

MINISTERIAL SUPPORT. 

Section I. — Allowance. 

1. The salaries of ministers are fixed by rep- 
resentatives of the people whom they serve. 

The following schedule will show the maxi- 
mum annual amount allowed to the preacher 
and his family at different periods of the 
Church : 



1 

1774 

! 1 


1778. 


17S0. j 1764 


1S00 

$S0t 
$S0 
$16 
$94 


1816. 

$100t 

$100 

$16 


1824-60 


Preacher £24 Penn. 

Preacher's I 

wife i 


£32 Va. 


£32 Va. 

£32* 


£24 Penn. 
£24* 

£6 

£8 


$100t 

$100 

$16 


; Child under 7: 

years ' 




! Child from 7, 

to 14 vears ! 




$24 | $24 
$1G* t 


Orphans of 

Preachers. . ! ! 






$16* 











* Conditionally. t And travelling expenses. 

* The same as children of living preachers, according to their age. 

2. The following plan was adopted by the 

General Conference of 1872 for the support of 

our ministry, and the widows and children of 

deceased ministers: 

13 



194 MINISTERIAL SUPPORT. [Chap. YII. 



The Support of Bishops, and the Families of Deceased 

Bishops. 

The General Conference shall determine 
which of the bishops are effective, and which 
are non-effective. 

It shall be the duty of the Book Committee 
to make an estimate of the amount necessary to 
furnish a competent support to each effective 
bishop, considering the number and condition 
of his family; and the amount, if any, neces- 
sary to the comfortable maintenance of the non- 
effective bishops ; and also the amount necessary 
to assist the widows .and children of deceased 
bishops ; and the bishops are authorized to draw 
on the agents of the Book Concern for said 
amount, and also for their traveling expenses. 

The bishop presiding at an annual conference, 
within whose bounds a widow or orphan of a 
deceased bishop may reside, shall be authorized 
to draw on the agents of the Book Concern 
for such amount as may be estimated as afore- 
said. 

The Book Committee shall divide the aggre- 
gate sum required to be raised for these pur- 
poses among the annual conferences, according 
to their several ability ; and the annual confer- 
ences shall apportion the same to the several 



Sec. L] ALLOWANCE. 195 

districts ; and the district stewards to the sev- 
eral charges. And it shall be the duty of the 
presiding elders to see that the amounts assessed 
on the different appointments are raised and 
forwarded to the agents of the Book Concern. 

The agents of the Book Concern shall charge 
the sums paid to the bishops, and to the widows 
and children of deceased bishops, to " The Epis- 
copal Fund," and all collections received from 
the different charges for the support of the bish- 
ops shall be credited to said fund. And the 
agents shall report annually to the annual 
conferences the amounts received from the sev- 
eral annual conferences on account of said fund, 
and also the expenditures made ; and shall make 
a full and detailed exhibit of such receipts and 
expenditures for the term of four years in their 
quadrennial report to the General Conference; 
and if there shall be a deficiency, and a balance 
due the Book Concern, the General Conference 
shall provide for its payment. 



Support of Presiding Elders, 

There shall be annually, in every district, a 
meeting composed of one steward from each 
circuit and station, to be selected by the quar- 
terly conference, whose duty it shall be, with 



196 MINISTERIAL SUPPORT. [Chap. VII, 

the advice of the presiding elder, (who shall 
preside in such meeting,) to make an estimate 
of the amount necessary to furnish a comfort- 
able support to the presiding elder, and to ap- 
portion the same, including house-rent and trav- 
eling expenses, and also the claim of the bishops 
assessed to the district by the annual conference, 
among the different circuits and stations in the 
district, according to their several ability ; and 
in all cases the presiding elder shall share 
with the preachers in his district in proportion 
with what they have respectively received ; but 
if there be a surplus of money raised for the 
support of the preachers in one or more of the 
circuits or stations in his district, he shall receive 
such surplus, provided he do not receive more 
than his allowance. 



Support of Ministers and Preachers. 

It shall be the duty of the quarterly confer- 
ence of each circuit and station, at the session 
immediately preceding the annual conference, 
to appoint an estimating committee, consisting 
of three or more members of the Church, who 
shall, after conferring with the preachers, make 
an estimate of the amount necessary to furnish 
a comfortable support to the preacher or preach- 



Sec L] ALLOWANCE. 197 

ers stationed among them, taking into consid- 
eration the number and condition of the family 
or families of such preacher or preachers, which 
estimate shall be subject to the action of the 
quarterly conference ; and to which shall be 
added the amouot apportioned for the support 
of the bishops and presiding elder ; and the 
stewards shall provide by such methods as they 
may judge best to meet such amount. The 
traveling and moving expenses of the preachers 
shall not be reckoned as a part of the estimate, 
but be paid by the stewards separately. 

Methods for Raising Annual Supplies for making up the 
Allowance of Preachers. 

The more effectually to raise the amount nec- 
essary to meet the above-mentioned allowances 
of the effective ministers and preachers, let the 
stewards at the beginning of the year estimate 
the amount needed monthly. Then ascertain 
from each member of the Church, and, as far as 
practicable, from each attendant of the congre- 
gation, what each purposes to give as his 
monthly contribution. 

Let these sums be entered by the recording 
steward in a book which he shall keep as treas- 
urer of the board of stewards. If the total 
amount of these sums does not equal the amount 



198 MINISTERIAL SUPPORT. [Chap. YII, 

needed monthly, then let the stewards apportion 
the deficiency among all such as are willing, for 
Christ's sake, to assume such deficiency, setting 
down to each person, with his consent, the ad- 
ditional amount which they think he ought 
monthly to pay. 

Let the stewards then adopt and carry out a 
plan by which every one — except such as prefer 
to make weekly contributions through their 
class-leaders — shall have the opportunity of 
regularly contributing each month, or oftener, 
not grudgingly nor of necessity, the sum w T hich 
has been pledged by him. Let these contribu- 
tions be paid over regularly to the recording 
steward or class-leader, and be brought up by him 
to the leaders' meeting or quarterly, conference, 
as the case may be. The recording steward 
shall keep an individual account of all these 
pledges and contributions, and shall pay over 
the same, under the direction of the stewards, 
to the preachers authorized to receive them. 

To provide to meet the claims that may be 
presented and determined at the annual confer- 
ence, every preacher shall make an annual col- 
lection in every congregation of his charge, and 
the money so collected shall be lodged in the 
hands of the steward or stewards, and brought 
or sent to the ensuing annual conference. 



Sec. L] ALLOWANCE. 199 

3. The Chartered Fund was established in 
1776, and was designed to relieve the distresses 
and supply the deficiencies of the itinerant and 
superannuated ministers and preachers of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church in the United 
States of America, who remain in connection 
with, and continue subject to the order and 
control' of, the General Conference, and also for 
the relief of the wives and children, widows 
and orphans, of such preachers. The amount of 

the invested funds, as reported in , is 

$40,117 75, and its annual produce is about 
$2,400. This income is divided equally among 
the several annual conferences. 

4. There is no specific rule which determines 
what shall constitute traveling expenses. This 
matter is very wisely left for the stewards and 
preacher to arrange, subject to a reference to 
the quarterly conference. 

5. The traveling expenses of editors appointed 
by the General Conference include those ex- 
penses only which are incurred by moving to 
the place of their appointment, and in going 
to and returning from the annual sessions of 
the conferences of which they are members. 
(Gen. Conf. Jour., 1848, pp. 112, 113.) 



200 MINISTERIAL SUPPORT. [Chap. VII, 

6. The rule authorizing the appointment of 
an estimating committee was formed by the 
General Conference of 1816. This committee 
must be composed of members of the Church ; 
but the rule does not require that they should 
be members of the quarterly conference. 

It is required that this committee be ap- 
pointed at the last quarterly conference in each 
ecclesiastical year, that it may be prepared to 
present its report to the first quarterly confer- 
ence in the conference year. 

The report of the estimating committee is 
subject to the action of the quarterly conference, 
and hence it may increase or diminish the es- 
timated amount. 

In making its estimate the committee is not 
to take into the account the pecuniary ability 
of the society, or the probability whether a 
given amount can be raised for the object ; but 
simply the question, What is a suitable amount 
to furnish a comfortable support for the preacher 
or preachers stationed among them ? Every 
circumstance should be duly considered : the 
condition of the preacher's family, whether 
sickly or otherwise ; the state of the market, 
and the expensiveness of the place where the 
preacher resides. The social position of the 
preacher should not be overlooked. He should 



Sec. L] ALLOWANCE. 201 

be enabled to live respectably among his con- 
gregation, and not be so reduced, by a stiuted 
policy, that he who should not be unmindful to 
entertain strangers be necessitated to turn away 
angels from his door. 

7. Whenever any claimant on the funds of a 
conference shall be in debt to the Book Con- 
cern, the conference of which he is a mem- 
ber has power to appropriate the amount of 
such claim, or any part of it, to the payment 
of said debt. 

8. It is general usage for the society to pay 
any expenses which may be incurred in supply- 
ing the pulpit on the Sabbath in which the 
preacher is absent at the annual conference. 

9. When a preacher is absent from his 
charge, in obedience to the authority of the 
Church, as delegate to the General Conference, 
member of the General Mission Committee, 
etc., he is entitled to his full salary as a regular 
pastor. 

10. When an effective preacher, by the ap- 
pointment of the bishop and the recommenda- 
tion of an annual conference, serves a corpora- 
tion as professor, agent of the American Bible 



202 MINISTEKIAL SUPPOET. [Chap. VII, 

Society, etc., it is understood that he has made 
a specific stipulation in regard to his support, 
and that he thereby releases his claim, while 
employed in such service, on the conference 
funds. 



11. " When a member of the annual confer- 
ence is accused of crime in the interval of his 
conference sessions, and is suspended by a com- 
mittee and subsequently convicted by his con- 
ference, and expelled, his claim upon the funds 
of the conference shall cease from the time 
of his suspension." — Gen. Conf. Jour., 1860, 
p. 303. 

A violation of covenant vows works a for- 
feiture of all disciplinary claims. 

12. The claim of a widow of a traveling 
preacher on the funds of the conference does 
not depend upon her Christian character, or 
her connection with the Methodist Episcopal 
Church ; but if she marries she ceases to be a 
claimant. 

13. The British Wesleyan Connection has a 
specific rule that those preachers who marry 
widows having issue by their former husbands, 
shall have no assistance, either from the public 



Sec. II.] ALLOWANCE. 203 

funds or from the circuits in which they labor, 
for the children of the former marriage. Such 
is the usage among us. But a child legally 
adopted by a preacher is a disciplinary claimant 
upon the funds of the conference. 

Section II.— Stewards. 

1. The following is Mr. Wesley's account of 
the origin of stewards : "In a few days some of 
them said, ' Sir, we will not sit under you for 
nothing; we will subscribe quarterly.' I said, 
' I will have nothing, for I want nothing. My 
fellowship supplies me with all I want.' One 
replied, c Nay, but you want a hundred and 
fifteen pounds to pay for the lease of the Found- 
ery, and likewise a large sum of money to put 
it into repair.' On this consideration I suffered 
them to subscribe. And when the society met 
I asked, ' Who will take the trouble of receiv- 
ing this money, and paying it where it is need- 
ful?' One said, 'I will do it, and keep the 
account for you.' So here was the first steward. 
Afterward I desired one or two more to help 
me as stewards, and in process of time a greater 
number." 

2. " The business of stewards," says Mr. 
Wesley, in his usual laconic style, "is, — 



204 MINISTERIAL SUPPORT. [Chap. VII, 

a. " To manage the temporal things of the 
society. 

h. " To receive the subscriptions and contri- 
butions. 

c. " To expend what is needful, from time to 
time. 

d. "To send relief to the poor. 

e. " To keep an exact account of all receipts 
and expenses. 

/. " To inform the minister if any of the rules 
of the society are not punctually observed. 

g. " To tell the preaqhers in love, if they 
think any thing amiss either in their doctrine or 
life. 

" The rules of stewards are : 

a. " Be frugal. Save every thing that can be 
saved honestly, 

h. " Spend no more than you receive. Con- 
tract no debts. 

c. " Have no long accounts. Pay every thing 
within the week, or as soon as possible. 

d. " Give none that asks relief either an ill 
word or an ill look. Do not hurt if you cannot 
help them. 

e. " Expect no thanks from man." — Wesley's 
Works, vol. v, p. 185. 

The duties of stewards are numerous and re- 
sponsible. They relate, in part, to the effective 



Sec. ILJ STEWARDS. 205 

operations of the pastorate, and in part to the 
pecuniary arrangements of the circuit. Though 
stewards may have but little to do in determin- 
ing the estimated amount to be raised, yet the 
amount which is actually paid for the support 
of the pastor depends almost exclusively upon 
their efforts. Stewards are ordinarily the types 
of the pecuniary character of the societies which 
they represent. Where energetic and effective 
stewards are employed, poverty will vie with 
wealth, and comparatively small and feeble 
societies will amply sustain the institutions of 
the Church. 

Stewards should endeavor to induce all the 
members of the Church to contribute statedly to 
every benevolent enterprise, as a matter of re- 
ligious principle. Spasmodic efforts to raise an 
unusual amount for any institution, or for some 
admired preacher, are always attended with 
disastrous reaction, and greatly embarrass all 
financial arrangements. The amount which is 
paid ought never to 'be graduated by the popu- 
larity of the preacher, but by the condition of 
the Church, and the ability with which God has 
blessed it. 

Stewards should endeavor to raise the preach- 
er's claim by quarterly installments. This plan 
can be executed in most places, and can be at 



206 MINISTERIAL SUPPORT. ■ [Chap. VII 

least partially executed in all. The expenses 
of the preacher in moving upon the circuit 
should be paid to him on his arrival at his 
charge. This amount has actually been paid 
by the preacher in advance, in his efforts to 
serve them ; and justice demands that actual 
expenditures for their benefit should immedi- 
ately be met. Promptitude under such circum- 
stances is appreciated far beyond the intrinsic 
value of the offering made : it furnishes an un- 
mistakable welcome to the preacher, and a 
cordiality most gratifying to his heart. 

Stewards should see that every subscription 
is collected when it becomes payable. It is of 
no avail to raise subscriptions unless prompt and 
systematic efforts are made for their collection. 

Every regular attendant on the ministry of 
the word should be solicited, in a proper man- 
ner, to aid in the support of the Gospel. None 
will be offended who are approached with 
Christian courtesy ; and the privileges which 
their own money helps to secure will be more 
highly prized by them. 

The steward should remember that if he fail 
to discharge his duties, the cause of God will 
inevitably suffer. No other member of the 
Church feels at liberty to act in his capacity 
without appointment; and unless the finances 



Sec. I1.J STEWARDS. 207 

of the Church are properly managed, the min- 
istry must be embarrassed, or retire from their 
work. 

3. The preacher in charge, previous to 1812, 
had the power to appoint stewards. Since that 
time he has possessed only the right of no?nina- 
tion — the power of appointment being vested in 
the quarterly conference. 

4. Stewards hold their office for one year, but 
may be reappointed from year to year. They 
are responsible to the quarterly conference for 
the faithful discharge of their official duties; 
and the quarterly conference may dismiss or 
change them at pleasure, without preferring any 
formal charge. 

5. Since the year 1820, one of the stewards 
has been specifically appointed a recording 
steward. This office, however, does not consti- 
tute him, ex officio, the secretary of the quarterly 
conference. His duties require him to record 
the doings of the quarterly conference, and the 
Sabbath-school quarterly reports. In other re- 
spects the prerogatives and duties of record- 
ing stewards are the same as those of other 
stewards. 



208 MINISTERIAL SUPPORT. [Chap. YII, 

6. A preacher in charge has no right to ac- 
cept the resignation of a steward, and declare 
the office vacant. The quarterly conference, 
which confers the office, can alone accept of the 
resignation. 

7. When two or more circuits or stations are 
united, the stewards shall hold office till the first 
quarterly conference shall elect a new board. 
(Gen. Conf. Jour., 1868.) 



Chap. VIII.] RULES OF ORDER. 209 



CHAPTER VIII. 
RULES OF ORDER. 

1. — Parliamentary Rules. 

Every pastor will frequently be called to pre- 
side over the deliberations of others, and hence 
should be well versed in all that relates to the 
correct and orderly management of deliberative 
bodies. 

The preacher in charge, by virtue of his office, 
is the presiding officer in leaders' meetings, in 
the meetings of such boards of trustees as are 
appointed according to Discipline, in quarterly 
conferences, in the absence of the presiding 
elder, in the arbitration and trial of members, 
in the missionary committees, and in the com- 
mittee of local preachers called to investigate 
the case of an accused local preacher. 

2. — Temporary Organization. 

It frequently happens that a temporary or- 
ganization is necessary. In such cases, some 

person of age, or distinction, should rise and 

14 



210 KULES OF ORDER. [Chap. VIII. 

call the meeting to order, announcing the ar- 
rival of the time of the meeting, and suggesting 
an organization, by the appointment of a chair- 
man before proceeding to business. The same 
person should act until a chairman is selected. 
Some four or five persons may be nominated as 
chairman. The question should not be put 
until every nomination that is desired is made. 
The names of the nominees should then be an- 
nounced, in the order in which the nominations 
were made, and the question submitted to the 
assembly. When a majority of votes is given 
for any candidate, he should be declared presi- 
dent pro tern., and invited to the chair, without 
voting upon the other names. 

The president pro tem., having taken the 
chair, should conduct the religious services of 
the occasion, or call upon some competent person 
to do so. 

After prayer, a secretary pro tern, should be 
appointed. If several secretaries are appointed, 
the one first named is the principal officer. 

In all deliberative representative assemblies it 
is necessary to ascertain who are properly mem- 
bers. This should be done, by general consent, 
either before gr after the permanent organiza- 
tion, and before proceeding to any other business 
This may be done by the secretary, who may 



« 

Chap. VIII.] RULES OF ORDER. 211 

receive the credentials and record the names of 
members, or by a committee appointed for this 
purpose. 

In case the seat of a member is contested, he 
should be heard in his own defense, and then 
retire until the case is determined. The other 
members, who are legally appointed, form a 
court to determine the question of all contested 
elections, unless they refer it to a committee. 

3.— Permanent Organization. 

This is usually done in one of two ways. 
First, by raising a committee to nominate a full 
board of officers for the association, and pro- 
ceeding to ballot, or to confirm the nomination 
by vote ; or, secondly, by promiscuously nomi- 
nating the different officers viva voce, and then 
balloting or confirming by hand-vote. 

4. — Presiding Officer. 

The duties of a presiding officer are the fol- 
lowing : 

To call the members to order at the appointed 
time. 

To conduct the religious services. 

To direct the roll to be called at the opening 



212 RULES OF ORDEK. [Chap. VIII. 

of each session, unless otherwise ordered, and the 
records of the previous meeting to be read. 

To announce the order of business, if any 
manifesto has been put forth respecting it. 

To receive all messages and communications, 
and announce them to the meeting. 

To put to vote all questions which are regu- 
larly submitted, or necessarily arise in the course 
of the proceedings, and declare the result. 

To see that the law T s of debate, and due order 
and decorum, are observed by the members. 

To decide all questions of order. 

To authenticate, by his signature, all the acts 
and proceedings of the assembly. 

To appoint committees, when directed in a 
particular case, or when a standing rule re- 
quires it ; and, in general, to obey implicitly its 
commands. 

The chairman ought to give direct and serious 
attention to each individual while speaking, and 
to hold no conversation with any one at the 
time. 

The utmost impartiality should be observed. 
Minorities and opponents should have their in- 
terests as jealously guarded as those of the 
majority, or of most intimate friends. 

When the president withdraws from the chair, 
the vice-president should take his place. If 



Ckap.YIIL] RULES OF ORDER. 213 

there be no vice-president, custom allows the 
president to appoint a chairman during his tem- 
porary absence. 

If, in the absence of the president, it becomes 
necessary to choose a president pro tem., it is 
the duty of the secretary to conduct the pro- 
ceedings. 

In large assemblies, the presiding officer may 
read sitting, but should rise to state a motion or 
put a question. 

5. — Secretary. 

The general duties of the recording officer of 
a deliberative body are the following : 

To keep a correct record of the proceedings 
of the assembly. 

To read all papers which may be ordered to 
be read. 

To notify the chairman of each committee of 
his appointment, giving him a list of his col- 
leagues, and stating the business referred to 
them. 

To authenticate, by his signature, all the acts 
of the assembly. 

To preserve all the papers and documents of 
the assembly, and allow none to be taken from 
his table without a formal leave of the assembly. 

The secretary, if a member of the body, is not 



214 EULES OF ORDER. [Chap. YIIL 

deprived of the privilege of taking part in the 
deliberations of the meeting. 

The secretary should stand while reading or 
calling the roll of the assembly. 

He should write a clear, legible hand; and 
all items of business, for the sake of easy refer- 
ence, should be recorded in separate para- 
graphs. 

The peculiar duties of the secretary of an an- 
nual conference are the following : 

a. To aid the president in the organization of 
the conference by reading the roll of the mem- 
bers at the opening of each annual session. 
This is usually done by the secretary of the 
previous session. 

b. To furnish the bishop with answers to 
questions 15th, 16th, 17th, and 18th of the busi- 
ness of conference, (Discipline, ^[ 105,) for the 
General Minutes, 

c. To countersign all drafts upon the Book 
Concern and Chartered Fund. 

d. To report annually to the secretaries of 
the Missionary Society the names of missions 
in the Conference, and the sum appropriated to 
each. (Discipline, T 108.) 

e. To report to the Sunday-School Union the 
number and condition of the Sunday-schools in 
the Conference, (Discipline, ^ 111.) 



Chap. Till] EULES OF ORDER. 215 

The journals of the annual conferences are 
subject to the inspection of the General Confer- 
ence, and should be executed in the best man- 
ner, as it regards penmanship, arrangement, 
and mode of reference. The heading of every 
page should give the date ; and the margin, 
references to all the transactions recorded. 

6. — Members. 

All members have an equal right to submit 
propositions to the assembly, and to explain and 
recommend them in discussion. 

No member should be interrupted when 
speaking, except by the president, to call him 
to order when he departs from the question, 
uses personalities or disrespectful language ; but 
any member may call the attention of the presi- 
dent to the subject when he deems a speaker 
out of order : and any member may explain, if 
he thinks himself misrepresented. 

A member who violates the rules of decorum 
may be named by the president; that is, the 
president may declare that such a member, 
calling him by name, is guilty of certain im- 
proper conduct. The member thus accused is 
entitled to be heard in his own defense, and 
must then withdraw. 

The only punishments which a deliberative 



216 RULES OF ORDER. [Chap. VIII 

• 

body can inflict are reprimanding, prohibition 
to speak or vote for a specified time, and expul- 
sion. It may require the offender to ask par- 
don, on pain of expulsion. 

Any member who desires to speak must re- 
spectfully address the. chair. 

If two members address the president nearly 
at the same time, he should give the floor to the 
one whose voice he first heard. If the decision 
of the president is not satisfactory to any mem- 
ber, the opinion of the assembly may be taken 

on it. 

7. — Motions. 

When a motion has been made and seconded, 
the presiding officer must state it to the assem- 
bly before it is in their possession. 

No speech should be made without a motion, 
nor after a motion is submitted, until it is sec- 
onded, and stated by the president. 

All motions or resolutions, introduced by any 
member, must be reduced to writing, if the 
president, secretary, or any two members re- 
quest it. 

According to the rules of the House of Rep- 
resentatives, and those of the General Confer- 
ence, any motion or resolution may be with- 
drawn by the mover, at any time, before decision 
or amendment 



Chap. YIIL] RULES OF ORDER. 217 

'No new motion or resolution can be made 
until the one under consideration is disposed of; 
which may be done by adoption or rejection, 
unless one of the following motions should in- 
tervene, which motions must have precedence 
in the order in which they are placed, namely, 
adjournment, indefinite postponement, laying on 
the table, reference to a committee, postpone- 
ment to a given time, a substitute which may 
be amended, amendment. 

All motions should be put in an affirmative 
and not in a negative form. 

8. — Indefinite Postponement. 

If a motion has been indefinitely postponed, 
it cannot be called up or resumed during that 
session. If a negative decision has been given, 
it has no effect whatever on the final disposal of 
the question. 

9. — Laying on the Table. 

This motion is proper when the assembly 
wishes for more information upon the subject. 
If decided in the affirmative, the principal mo- 
tion, and all subsidiary questions connected with 
it, are removed from before the assembly until 
they are taken up again, which may be done at 
any time, at the pleasure of the assembly. If 



218 KULES OF ORDER. [Chap. VIII. 

they are not taken up, it is equivalent to an in- 
definite postponement. 

10. — Referring to a Committee. 

When a proposition is regarded with favor, 
and some modifications are desired, it is usual to 
refer it to a committee — to the standing commit- 
tee, if one has been raised on that subject ; 
otherwise, to a select committee. 

If it is suggested to refer it both to a standing 
and to a select committee, the question should 
be first put in reference to the standing com- 
mittee. A portion only of a subject may be 
referred, and different portions may be referred 
to different committees. 

If a committee make a report, and the as- 
sembly wish for certain alterations or amend- 
ments, it may reco??i?nit the report. 

If a subject is referred with instructions, 
those instructions, of course, must be obeyed. 

11. — Division of a Question. 

When a proposition consists of two or more 
parts, so independent and distinct that if one 
be taken away the others will remain entire, 
and it is supposed that the assembly may ap- 
prove of some but not of all the parts, it is 
frequently more desirable to resolve it into its 



Chap. Vin.] RULES OF ORDER. 219 

elementary parts than to attempt to modifyit by 
amendments. 

Where a deliberative body has adopted no 
rule providing for the division of complicated 
questions, no division should take place without 
a definite motion to divide, unless a unanimous 
consent is given. 

12. — Filling Blanks. 

When blanks are left for the assembly to fill, 
the proposition to fill is not an amendment, but 
an original motion. 

In filling blanks where different numbers are 
named, the question should be put first on the 
largest sum and the longest time. 

13. — Amendments. 

The mover may modify or accept of an 
amendment when it is made, before it has been 
stated to the assembly by the chairman. In 
this case it becomes a part of the original mo- 
tion. In all other cases it must be put as a 
regular amendment. 

Rules respecting Amendments. — Amendments 
may be made in three ways: by striking out 
certain words, or by inserting certain words, or 
by striking out some and inserting other words. 

1, When a proposition consists of several sen- 



220 RULES OF ORDER. [Chap. Till. 

tences or resolutions, it should be taken up in 
order, and each paragraph amended according 
to the pleasure of the assembly : and when it is 
thus passed through, it is not deemed orderly to 
introduce new amendments into the first part of 
the proposition. 

2. Every amendment may be amended ; but 
it can go no further. There cannot be an 
amendment to an amendment of an amendment. 
The question should first be put on the last 
amendment, and proceed in that order. 

3. Whatever is agreed to by the assembly, on 
a vote, either adopting or rejecting a proposed 
amendment, cannot afterward be altered or 
amended. 

4. The converse of the above rule is true. 
Whatever is disagreed to by the assembly, on a 
vote, cannot afterward be moved again. 

Striking out. — If an amendment to strike out 
is rejected, it cannot be moved again to strike 
out the same words, or a part of them ; but it 
may be moved to strike out the same words, or 
a part of them, with other words. But if the 
amendment to strike out is agreed to, it cannot 
afterward be moved to insert the same words, or 
a part of them, unless it is proposed to insert 
other words in connection w T ith them. The same 
rule applies in reference to inserting the same 



Chap. Yin.] RULES OF ORDEB. 221 

word§, or a part of them. The motion to amend 
those relating to striking out and inserting ap- 
plies as in other cases of amendment. 

Striking out and inserting. — If the motion is 
divided, the question is first to be taken on srik- 
ing out; and if that is decided in the affirm- 
ative, then on inserting : but if the former is 
decided in the negative, the latter of course falls. 

If the motion to strike out and insert is put 
undivided, and decided in the negative, the 
same motion cannot again be renewed. But it 
may be moved to strike out and, 

1. Insert nothing; or, 

2. Insert other words ; or, 

3. Insert the same, with other words ; or, 

4. Insert a part of the same words with 
others; or, 

5. Strike out the same words with others, and 
insert the same ; or, 

6. Strike out a part of the same words with 
others, and insert the same ; or, 

7. Strike out other words, and insert the 
same; or, 

8. Insert the same words without striking out 
any thing. (Ref. Cushing's Manual.) 

On putting the question, first read the pas- 
sage proposed to be amended as it stands, then 
the words proposed to be struck out or in- 



222 RULES OF ORDER. [Cbap. VIII. 

serted ; and, lastly, the whole passage as ft will 
stand if the amendment be adopted. 

Defeating a Proposition. — Amendments may 
be made to a proposition, which will not only 
modify the meaning, but convey a directly op- 
posite sense ; and often, in legislative bodies, 
bills are amended by striking out all after the 
enacting clause, and • inserting a new bill ; and 
resolutions are amended by striking out all after 
the words " resolved that," and inserting a prop- 
osition of an entirely different character. 

14. — Privileged Questions. 

Questions of this nature are of three kinds : 
1. Motions to adjourn. 2. Motions relating to 
the rights and privileges of the assembly, or of 
its members individually. 3. Motions for the 
orders of the day. 

15. — Adjournment 

A simple motion to adjourn cannot be 
amended, but must be decided without debate. 
A motion to adjourn to a particular day is de- 
batable, and may be amended in regard to time. 

" A motion to adjourn is not in order, 1. When 
a member is speaking ; 2. When a vote is being 
taken on any question ; 3. A motion to adjourn 
being negatived, cannot be renewed until some 



Chap. VIII.] RULES OF ORDER. 223 

other proposition is made, or other business 
transacted." — Matthias's Manual, p. 72 ; Gush- 
ing } s Elements of Law and Practice, p. 545. 

An adjournment without day is equivalent to 
a dissolution. 

When a question is interrupted by adjourn- 
ment before any vote is taken upon it, it is 
thereby removed from the assembly, and does 
not stand before it at its next regular session, 
but must be brought forward in the usual way. 
But an adjourned special meeting is regarded 
as a continuation of a former meeting, and the 
business should be resumed the same as if no 
adjournment had taken place. 

16. — Orders of the Day. 

When the consideration of a subject has been 
assigned by the assembly to a certain day, it is 
called the order of the day. 

If any other proposition arise on the day as- 
signed for the consideration of any subject, a mo- 
tion for the order of the day will supersede such 
proposition, and must be first put and decided. 

To entitle this motion to precedence, it must 
be for the orders of the day generally, if there 
is more than one, and not for any particular 
subject ; and the orders must be taken up in the 
order in which they stand. 



224 RULES OF ORDER. [Chap. VIII. 

If a subject is assigned for any particular 
hour, the question to proceed to it is. not a 
privileged one until the hour has arrived; but 
if no hour is fixed, the order is for the entire 
day and every part of it. 

If the motion for the orders of the day pre- 
vails, the original question is removed from the 
consideration of the assembly, in the same man- 
ner as if it had been interrupted by an adjourn- 
ment. If the motion is decided in the negative, 
the orders of the day must be superseded until 
that subject is disposed of. 

The orders of the day, unless disposed of on 
the day assigned, fall, and must be renewed for 
some other day. 

17.— Incidental Questions, 

Such as questions of order, motions for the 
reading of papers, leave to withdraw a motion, 
suspension of a rule, and amendment of an 
amendment, must be decided before the ques- 
tions which gave rise to them. 

18. — Questions of Order, 

It is the duty of the presiding officer to en- 
force the rules of the assembly ; and any mem- 
ber noticing a breach of the rule may call his 



Chap. Till.] RULES OF ORDER. 225 

attention to it, and insist upon the enforcement 
of it. 

When a question of order arises, all other 
business must be suspended until that point is 
settled. The presiding officer must decide the 
point without debate. If the decision is not 
satisfactory, any member may appeal to the as- 
sembly. The question should then be stated : 
" Shall the decision of the chair stand as the 
decision of the assembly ? " • When it is thus 
stated it is debatable, and the presiding officer 
may participate in the debate. When a ques- 
tion has been put, and the decision announced, 
if any member alleges that the question was not 
understood, the presiding officer may recall his 
decision and put the question again. 



19. — Previous Question. 

The design of the previous question is chiefly 
for suppressing debate, and taking immediate 
action on the main question, 

The question is put in this form : " Shall the 

main question be now put ? " If it is decided 

in the negative, the debate continues ; if in the 

affirmative, the vote must be at once taken, 

in the form in which the question exists at the 

time. 

15 



226 RULES OF ORDER. [Chap. VIII. 

A previous question cannot be amended. By 
the rules of the House of Representatives, the 
previous question can only be admitted when 
demanded by a majority of the members pres- 
ent ; and if it is ordered it brings the House to 
a direct vote upon a motion to commit, if such 
motion shgjl have been made ; and if this mo- 
tion does not prevail, then upon amendments 
reported by a committee, if any ; then upon 
pending amendments, and then upon the main 
question. It is not in order to move the pre- 
vious question unless the assembly has adopted 
the rule for its government. When the previous 
question is moved and seconded by the requisite 
number, all further amendments and discussion 
must cease. The president rises and says, " The 
previous question has been moved and sec- 
onded, — the question before the meeting is, 
i Shall the main question be now put ? ' 5: If it 
is decided in the affirmative, the question should 
then be put, first on the amendments, and then 
on the main proposition. 



20. — Order of Proceeding. 

When the assembly does not prescribe any 
order of proceeding, the presiding officer may 
present any regular business according to»his 



Chap. Till.] RULES OF ORDER. 227 

discretion. In an annual conference the re cm- 
lar disciplinary questions are presented by the 
bishop by disciplinary authority, and at his dis- 
cretion as to time and circumstances. 

In considering a proposition consisting of 
several paragraphs, the paper should first be 
read entirely through by the secretary, then a 
second time by the presiding officer or secretary, 
pausing at the close of every paragraph, that 
amendments may be made if desired ; and when 
the whole paper has been gone through with, 
in this order, the final question should be put 
on agreeing to, or adopting, the whole paper as 
amended or unamended. 

When there is a preamble, it should be con- 
sidered after the disposal of the resolutions or 
propositions under it. When a paper has been 
referred to a committee, and reported back with 
amendments, these amendments must first be 
disposed of, unless amended, before other amend- 
ments are introduced. 

It is deemed an unparliamentary and abusive 
proceeding to introduce a proposition, and at 
the same time move the previous question. In 
such cases it is recommended bv Judge Cash- 
ing to take no notice of the motion for the pre- 
vious question. 



228 RULES OF ORDER* [Chap. VIII. 

21. — Order in Debate. 

The presiding officer is not presumed to enter 
into the debate ; but he is allowed to state mat- 
ters of fact within his knowledge, to inform the 
assembly on points of order when called upon 
to do so, or when it is necessary to do so; and 
on appeals from his decision on questions of 
order, he may address the assembly in debate. 

A member rising to address the assembly 
must respectfully address himself to the pres- 
ident, and not proceed until his name is called 
by that officer. 

When two or more members rise at nearly 
the same time, the president must name tlje 
member who is first to speak. The person whose 
voice is first heard is entitled to the floor. If 
the assembly is not satisfied with the decision of 
the chair, the question should be put first in 
reference to the person named by the president ; 
and if it is decided in the negative, then upon 
the name of the person for whom the floor is 
claimed in preference to him. 

When a person gives way to another to 
•speak, he really resigns the floor, and can retain 
it only by general consent, or the vote of the 
assembly. 

When the presiding officer rises to speak, any 



Chap. VIII.] RULES OF .ORDER. 229 

other member should be seated until he is first 
heard ; bat this does not authorize any presiding 
officer to interrupt a speaker unless he is out of 
order. 

Every member should confine himself directly 
to the subject of debate ; but the presiding 
officer should not generally interpose, unless the 
remarks are manifestly irrelevant. 

When called to order for irrelevancy, the 
speaker may proceed, unless a motion prevail 
that he is out of order. And in this case, by 
usual parliamentary rules, he may proceed, if 
he abandons his objectionable course of remark ; 
but by the Rules of the House of Representatives 
such speakers are not allowed to proceed, if any 
member objects, without leave of the House. 

Xo member should speak more than once 
upon the same question without the permission 
of the assembly, unless it be to explain, although 
the debate on the question may be continued 
through several days. 

Respectful attention should be paid to every 
speaker. 

If a member uses offensive and abusive lan- 
guage toward other members, lie may be stopped 
by one or more rising for that purpose, or by 
the president ; and the words objected to should 
be written down by the secretary, that the 



230 RULES OF ORDER. [Chap. VIII. 

offender may disclaim or apologize for the 
offense, or receive the censure of the assembly. 

22. — Taking the Question. 

A proposition made to a deliberative body is 
called a motion; when propounded to the as- 
sembly for reception or rejection, it is denomi- 
nated a question ; when adopted it becomes the 
order, resolution, or vote of the assembly. 

Strictly speaking, no question can arise in a 
deliberative assembly without a motion being 
first made and seconded ; yet sometimes, for the 
dispatch of business, the presiding officer takes 
it for granted that a motion has been made, and 
puts the question accordingly. 

The question being stated, the president puts 
it first in the affirmative : " As many as are of 
opinion that, [repeating the question,] say Aye," 
or " raise your hands ;" and, putting it in the 
negative, •" As many as are of a different opin- 
ion," etc. 

If the presiding officer is doubtful as to the 
majority of voices, he may put the question a 
second time ; or, if he is still doubtful, or a 
member doubts the vote, he may direct the as- 
sembly to divide, and appoint tellers to return 
the several divisions of the house ; or the secre- 
tary to count the number who rise in voting, 



V 



Chap. VIII.] RULES OF ORDER. 231 

Every person is bound, unless excused, to vote 
on every question. 

A person not present when the vote is taken, 
cannot vote afterwards without permission of 
the assembly. 

If the members are equally divided upon a 
question, the presiding officer ordinarily may 
give the casting vote. This rule, however, does 
not apply to the president of annual, of district, 
or of quarterly conferences. 

If a question arises upon a point of order— 
for example, as to the right or the duty of a 
member to vote while a division is taking 
place — the presiding officer must decide it 
peremptorily, subject to the correction of the 
assembly after the division is over. 

If a quorum is not present when a division 
takes place, there can be no decision. 

23. — Reconsideration. 

When any motion or resolution has been car- 
ried in the affirmative or negative, it is in order 
for any member who voted in the majority to 
move for a reconsideration of it. 

The passage of a resolution to reconsider 
places the question w T here it was before decis- 
ion, and leaves it open for discussion, amend- 
ment, adoption, or rejection. 



232 RULES OF ORDER. [Chap. Y.III. 

24. — Committees. 

Committees appointed to consider a particular 
subject are called select committees ; those ap- 
pointed to consider all subjects of a similar na- 
ture are denominated standing committees. 

It is customary, in all deliberative bodies, to 
constitute a majority of the committee of such 
persons as are known to be favorably inclined 
to the measure proposed. 

The person first named on a committee is the 
chairman to call the first meeting ; but every 
committee may elect its own chairman to pre- 
side over its deliberations. 

They may receive instructions when the busi- 
ness is at first referred to them, or at any sub- 
sequent period. A committee is not at liberty 
to sit while the assembly is sitting, without 
special permission. It can act only when regu- 
larly assembled together as a committee — a sep- 
arate consultation and consent is not binding. 
If a paper has been referred to a committee, and 
it is entirely opposed to it. it ought not to sup- 
press it, but report it back to the assembly with 
its objections. The paper should not be erased, 
interlined, or disfigured. If amendments are 
proposed to it, they should be written on a sep- 
arate piece of paper. The report may be made 



Chap. Till.] RULES OF ORDER. 233 

* 

to the assembly by the chairman, or by any other 
person who shall be authorized to do so. 

25. — Reports of Committees. 

Every report should be written fully and 
plainly, without erasure or interlinear lines, and 
signed either by the chairman and secretary, or 
by all the members of the committee. 

A report may be received by direct vote, or 
the general consent of the assembly. 

A report may consist merely of a statement 
of facts, reasoning, or opinion, or simply of a 
series of resolutions, or of both combined. 
When a report closes with a series of resolu- 
tions, the assembly should first act on the reso- 
lutions, and then on the preliminary remarks. 

When the report of a select committee is ac- 
cepted, the committee is discharged. 

26. — Minority Report. 

" Should a committee not be unanimous in 
opinion, and those in the minority be desirous 
of placing their views before' the meeting, the 
matter should be introduced immediately after 
the majority report has been read. A member 
will then move that ' the report and resolution 
thereto attached be postponed for the present, 
for the purpose of enabling the minority to 



234: RULES OF ORDER. [Chap. YIIL 

make a report as a substitute.' If this motion 
prevails, as is almost always the case, the mi- 
nority report will be immediately presented, 
received, and read. It is then in order, on mo- 
tion, to take up for consideration the resolution 
attached to either of the reports." — B. Mat- 
thias's Manual, p. 38. 

Or when the majority report is considered, 
the minority report may be moved as an amend- 
ment, or a substitute for it. 

A protest cannot be inserted on the journal 
without the consent of the majority. 

27. — Com?nittee of the Whole. 

When a subject has been ordered to be refer- 
red to a Committee of the Whole, the mode of 
organizing such committee is as follows : A 
motion is made and seconded that the assembly 
do now resolve itself into a Committee of the 
Whole for the purpose of considering the matter 

relating to , naming the subject. If the 

question prevails, the president will call some 
member to the chair, or the assembly may ap- 
point a chairman. 

The committee, thus organized, is under the 
same laws that govern assemblies, with the fol- 
lowing exceptions : 

1. The previous question cannot be moved. 



Chap. Yin.] RULES OF ORDER. 235 

2. The presiding officer of the assembly has 
the same privilege to take a part in the debate 
that the other members have. 

3. They cannot, like other committees, adjourn 
to some other time or place ; but when they rise, 
if their business is unfinished, they can ask per- 
mission of the assembly to sit again. 

4. They cannot refer any matter to a sub- 
committee. 

5. Members are not restricted as to the times 
of speaking. 

6. The yeas and nays cannot be called. 

7. There is no appeal from the decision of the 
chair on points of order. 

When the committee has finished the busi- 
ness referred to it, a member moves that the 
committee rise, and that the chairman, or some 
other member, report their proceedings to the 
assembly, which, being carried, the president 
resumes his seat. The chairman should then 
say: "The Committee of "the Whole has had 

under consideration the matter relating to , 

and has instructed me to report that," etc. 
The president then presents the report for the 
action of the assembty. If its business is un- 
finished, and it is resolved to rise, report prog- 
ress, and ask leave to sit again, the chairman 
says ; " The Committee of the Whole has had 



236 RULES OF ORDER. [Chap. VIII. 

under consideration the subject of ; but 

not having had time to complete the same, 
has instructed me to report that it has made 
progress therein, and begs leave to sit again." 
The president thereupon puts the question on 
giving the committee leave to sit again. If 
leave is not granted, the committee is of course 
dissolved. 

28. — Rules of the General Conference in 1872. 

1. The conference shall meet at 9 o'clock 
A. M., and adjourn at 12^ P. M. ; but may alter 
the time of meeting and adjournment at their 
discretion. 

2. The president shall take the chair precisely 
at the hour to which the conference stood ad- 
journed, and cause the same to be opened by the 
reading of the Scriptures, singing, and prayer ; 
and on the appearance of a quorum shall have 
the journals of the preceding session read and 
approved, and the business of the conference 
shall proceed in the following order, namely : 

(1.) Petitions, memorials, and appeals; in 
calling for which the annual conferences shall 
be named in alphabetical order. 

(2.) The roll of conferences shall be repeated 
for the presentation of resolutions and miscel- 
laneous business, 



Chap. VIII.] RULES OF ORDER. 237 

(3.) Reports, first, of the standing, and then 
of the select committees: provided always, that 
each call severally shall have been completed 
before either preceding one shall be repeated. 

3. The president shall decide all questions of 
order, subject to an appeal to the conference ; 
but in case of such appeal the question shall be 
taken without debate. 

4. He shall appoint all committees not other- 
wise specially ordered by the conference. 

5. On assigning the floor to any member of 
the conference he shall distinctly announce the 
name of the member to whom it is assigned, and 
the conference he represents. 

6. All motions or resolutions introduced by 
any member shall be written and presented in 
duplicate by the mover if the president, secre- 
tary, or any two members request it. 

7. When a motion or resolution is made and 
seconded, or a report presented, and is read by 
the secretary or stated by the president, it shall 
be deemed in possession of the conference; but 
any motion or resolution may be withdrawn by 
the mover at any time before amendment or 
decision. 

8. All motions to postpone or to lay on the 
table shall be taken without debate. 

9. No new motion or resolution shall be enter- 



238 RULES OF ORDER. [Chap, VIII. 

tained until the one under consideration has been 
disposed of, which may be done by adoption or 
rejection, unless one of the following motions 
should intervene, which shall have precedence in 
the order in which they are placed, namely : 

(1.) Indefinite postponement ; 

(2.) Laying on the table ; 

(3.) Reference to a committee ; 

(4.) Postponement to a given time; 

(5.) Substitute ; 

(6.) Amendment. 

A substitute or an amendment may be 
amended. 

10. When any member is about to speak in 
debate, or to deliver any matter to the confer- 
ence, he shall rise and respectfully address the 
president. 

11. No member shall be interrupted when 
speaking, except by the president to call him 
to order when he departs from the question, or 
uses personalities or disrespectful language ; but 
any member may call the attention of the presi- 
dent to the subject when he deems a speaker 
out of order, and any member may explain if 
he thinks himself misrepresented. 

12. JSTo person shall speak more than twice 
on the same question, nor more than fifteen 
minutes at one time, without leave of the con- 



Chap. VIII.] RULES OF ORDER. 239 

ferenee ; nor shall any person speak more than 
once until every member choosing to speak 
shall have spoken. 

13. When anv motion or resolution shall have 
been acted upon by the conference, it shall be 
in order for any member who voted with the 
prevailing side to move a reconsideration ; but 
a motion to reconsider a non-debatable motion 
shall be decided without debate. 

14. No member shall absent himself from the 
service of the conference without leave, unless 
he is sick or unable to attend. 

15. 'No member shall be allowed to vote on 
any question who is not within the bar at the 
time when such question is put by the president, 
except by leave of the conference, when such 
member has been necessarily absent. 

16. Every member who is within the bar at 
the time the question is put shall give his vote, 
unless the conference, for special reasons, ex- 
cuse him. 

17. No resolution altering or rescinding any 
rule of Discipline shall be adopted until it shall 
have been in the possession of the conference 
at least one day. 

18. It shall be in order for any member to 
call for the yeas and nays on any question before 
the conference, and if the call be sustained by 



240 RULES OF ORDER. [Chap. VII L 

eighty members present, the vote thereon shall 
be taken by yeas and nays. 

19. It shall be in order to move that the 
question be taken without further debate on 
any measure pending before the General Con- 
ference, except in cases in which character is 
involved, and if sustained by a vote of two 
thirds, the question shall be so taken. 

20. A motion to adjourn shall always be in 
order, and shall be decided without debate. 

21. Each member of this body presenting 
memorials, petitions, and other papers for refer- 
ence, shall prepare the paper by writing in a 
plain hand on the back of it the following 
items, in the following order, namely : 

(1.) Name of the member presenting the 
paper. 

(2.) Conference from which it comes. 

(3.) Pastoral charge of the conference send- 
ing it. 

(4.) Subject to which it relates. 

(5.) First name on the petition. 

(6.) Number of other petitioners. 

(7.) The committee to which he desires it 
referred. 

Papers thus presented, if no objection be 
made, shall be referred as indicated without a 
vote of the conference. 



Chap. VIIL] RULES OF ORDER. 211 

22. When any member shall move the refer- 
ence of any portion of the journal of his con- 
ference to any committee, he shall at the same 
time furnish a copy of the portion he wishes 
referred, filed as already provided in the case of 
memorials. 

23. All resolutions contemplating verbal al- 
terations of the Discipline shall state the lan- 
guage of the paragraph or line proposed to be 
altered, and also the language proposed to be 
substituted. 

24. All committees reporting changes of Dis- 
cipline shall not only recite the page, part, 
chapter, section, and line proposed to be amend- 
ed, but also the amended paragraph complete. 

25. All written motions, reports, and com- 
munications to the conference shall be passed 
to the secretary, to be by him read to the con- 
ference, unless the conference shall, when such 
paper is offered, request the proposer of the 
paper to read it to the conference. 

26. All committees shall furnish duplicates 
of their reports, and all persons offering resolu- 
tions shall be required to furnish duplicates 
where, by Eule VI, they are required to write 
them. 

16 



242 RULES OF ORDER. [Chap. VIII. 

Committee on Appeals. 

I. The Committee on Appeals shall be a 
standing committee. 

II. It shall consist of one member from each 
delegation, to be* nominated by the respective 
delegations. 

III. The committee shall be divided into 
two sections, in alphabetical order — all the 
names, from the beginning of the alphabet down 
to and including those commencing with the 
letter L, to constitute the first section ; and the 
names below that, in alphabetical order, to be 
included in the second section — these two sec- 
tions, alternately, beginning with the first, shall 
be charged with the appeal cases pending be- 
fore the General Conference. 

IV. The parties may challenge for cause, and 
the committee may excuse for cause in any 
given case — only^ so that not less than fifteen 
members of the committee shall remain for the 
trial of the case. 

V. The question of entertaining the appeals 
shall be determined by the committee to try 
appeals. 

YI. The order of procedure in the trial of re- 
ferred appeal cases shall be as follows, namely : 
(1.) Present the appeal. 



Chap. VIH.] RULES OF ORDER. 243 

(2.) Determine what members of the Com- 
mittee on Appeals, not less than fifteen, shall 
hear and try the case— a majority of whom shall 
decide. 

(3.) Read the findings in the case. 

(4.) State the grounds of the appeal. 

(5.) Motion to admit the appeal. 

(6.) Read the minutes and documents. 

(7.) Appellant's defense. 

(8.) Reply of the delegates of the conference 
from whose action the appeal is taken. 

(9.) Appellant's reply to the delegates. 

(1 0.) Decision of the case. 



244 FORMULAS. [Chap. IX, 



CHAPTER IX. 
FORMULAS. 

Section I. — Formulas for Preachers m 
Charge. 

We would not attempt to settle the precise 
form in any given case, or intimate that 
other modes of expression may not be equally 
proper; but we submit the following brief 
forms, as general guides to young and inex- 
perienced pastors : — 

L— NOTE OF EECOMMENDATION TO A MEMBER. 



A. B., the bearer, has been an acceptable member of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church on this circuit, (or 
station.) C« D., Preacher in Charge. 

V i New-York. 

■ Conference. 

April 10, 18 . 



Sec. I.] FOR PREACHERS- IN CHARGE. 245 

1L— EXHOETEE'S LICENSE. 



This may certify that A. B., the bearer, having been 
duly recommended by the class of which he is a 
member, is hereby authorized to hold meetings for 
prayer and exhortation in the Methodist Episcopal 

Church on N Circuit. 

C. D., Preacher in Charge. 

i K Y. 

Conference. 

Jan. 1, 18 



In case of renewal, let it be signed by the presiding elder, 
or by the preacher in charge, as president of the Quarterly 
Conference, "by the approval of the Quarterly Confer- 



ence." 



IIL— NOTE OF EECOMMENDATION TO A LOCAL PEEACHEE. 



This may certify that A. B., the bearer, is a regularly 
authorized Local Preacher (Elder or Deacon) in the 
Methodist Episcopal Church in D , N— — Confer- 
ence. A. B., P. E. on E. Bis., AT. Con., or 
0. D., Pr. in Charge of D. Station. 
Jan. 1, 18 
D , K H. 



246 



FOKMULAS. 



[Chap. IX, 



IV.— CLASS-BOOK 



Class-Book, 
No. 1. 

D Circuit, 

N. Conference. 
C. D., Leader, 
T.V., 
Pr. in Charge. 

Remember the fast 
on the Friday pre- 
ceding each quar- 
terly meeting. 
Jan. 1, 18 . 


i 


■3 . 
&% 

O 
CO 


MEMBERS. 




a 

a 

a 
ft 


January. 


1 

B 

JO 

3 


1. 

P- 
P. 
a. 

P. 
P- 
P- 
P. 
P. 


8. 

P- 

S. 

£ 

P- 
P- 
P. 
a. 


15. 


M. 
M. 
M. 
W. 
Wd. 
8. 
S. 
S. 


F. 
F. 
F. 
F. 
F. 
T. 
T. 
T. 


C. D., Leader. 

A. B 

E. F 

G.H 

J. K 

L.M 

N.P 

R. S 


P. st, 17 
D. st. 5. 

K 

S 

M 

P 

Q 

R 


P- 

P- 
P- 
P- 

8. 

1 

P. 


$10 00 

10 00 

15 00 

10 00 

1 00 

20 00 

5 00 

50 



M.— Married. 
8. — Unmarried. 
W.— Widower. 



Abbreviations. 

Wd.— "Widow. 
F. — Full connexion. 
T.— On trial. 
p. — Present. 



a.— Absent 

s.— Sick. 

d.— Out of town. 



Y.— CHURCH REGISTER FOR A SUCCESSOR. 

This should contain the names and residences of the 
local preachers, stewards, class-leaders, and exhorters ; the 
board of trustees, superintendents of Sabbath schools, and 
the members of the several classes; and also the general 
plan of the circuit, the time and place for Sabbath preach- 
ing, weekly lectures, and class and prayer-meetings. 



VI.— REGISTER OF THE CHILDREN, TO BE LEFT FOR A 

SUCCESSOR. 



Names. 


Parents. 


Residences. 


Remarks. 


A. D. 
E. F. 
G.H. 


O. B. 
K.L. 

M.K 


10 Laurel-st. 

5 Orange-st. 

6 Elm-st. 





Sec. I.] FOR. PREACHERS IN CHARGE. 



247 



VIL— Money for benevolent objects should be carefully done 
up in separate parcels, and distinctly labelled, as follows :— 



§100. 

MISSIONAKY MONEY. 

NEWLAND CrRCTTIT. 

0. D., Pr. wi Charge. 



$100. 

AMEE. BIBLE SOCIETY. 

NEWLAND CIECUTT. 

C. D., Pr. in Charge. 



VIII.— STEWAKD'S CERTIFICATE. 



This may certify that the estimate for the support of 


Rev. A. B„ Preacher in Charge of Newland Circuit, 


for the conference year ending May 1, 18 , was 


$500. Whole claim paid. 


C, R., ^ 




B. R., 
P. S., 


- Stewards. 


K.R.J 





IX— BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS. 

MEMBERSHIP. 



Societies. 


Annual 
Membership. 


Life 
Membership. 


Director 
for Life. 


Manager 
for Life. 


Patron 
for Life. 


American Bible Society. 

Missionary Society of the 

M. E. Church 


$3 
2 

1 
1 


$30* 
20* 
10* 
10* 


$150 

50 
25 


$150* 
• •• 


$500 


Sunday-School Union of 
theM. E. Church 

Tract Society of the M E. 
Church 





At one time. 



248 FORMULAS. [Chap. IX, 



X.— WILLS. 

As ministers are frequently called upon to write or ad- 
vise in reference to the making of wills, we subjoin the. 
following : — 

I. — Commencement of WilU. 

In the name of God. Amen. 

I, (A. B., of , &c.,) being of sound mind and 

memory, do make, publish, and declare this my last will 
and testament. 

II. — Bequests and Devises. 

Let these be arranged in order, thus : " First. I give and 
bequeath unto the sum of dollars, and the re- 
ceipt of the treasurer of the Society shall be a sufficient 
discharge therefor to my executors ;" or, " I give and de- 
vise the following (here describe the property) to the 

trustees of ^ and its use to be controlled by the said 

trustees, or their successors in office, for the use and benefit 

of ." (Here state the benevolent object to which it 

shall be applied.) 

III. — Appointment of Executor and in testimonium 

And I do hereby appoint 0. D., of W , to be the 

Bole executor of this my last will and testament, hereby 
revoking, annulling, and declaring void all former wills by 
me at any time heretofore made. 

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and 
seal this' day of , &c. 

IY. — Attestation of Wills. 

Signed, sealed, and declared by the said A. B. to be his 
last will and testament in the presence of us, who, at his 
request, and in his presence, and iu the presence of each 



Sec. I.] FOR PREACHERS IN CHARGE. 249 

other, have hereunto subscribed our names and respective 
places of residence as witnesses. 

M.M.,ofC ,1 -^ 

A. B. |l. s.£ 



P. M., of 0- 

M. K, of 0- 



(Let there be three witnesses.) 

If the will be signed by a third person for the testator, 
the attestation should be as follows : — 

Signed by the said E. F. in our presence, and in the 
presence of the said A. B., and by his express direction, 
and by the said A. B. at the same time, published and de- 
clared as his last will and testament in the presence of the 
said E. F. and of us, who each, in the presence of the other 
and of the said A. B., and of the said E. F., have hereunto 
get our hands as subscribing witnesses. 



250 FORMULAS. [Chap. IX, 

Section II. — Formulas for Presiding Elders. 

[In all cases of licensing a Local Preacher, or recommendation for admis- 
sion to the traveling connection or for ordination by a District Conference, 
the license or recommendation should state that the person was duly 
recommended to the District Conference by the Society of which he 
is a member, or by the Quarterly Conference, as the case may be.] 

L— LICENSE OF A LOCAL PREACHER. 



To all whom it may concern. 

This may certify that A. B., the bearer, having 
been duly recommended by the society of which he is 
a member, and having been examined by us concern- 
ing his gifts, grace, and usefulness, is judged by us to 
be a proper person to be licensed, and is hereby au- 
thorized to preach the Gospel in the M. E. Church. 
Done at a Quarterly Conference held at Rowland, 
this second day of May, A. D. one thousand 
eight hundred and 
Signed by order and in behalf of said conference. 
N. M., Secretary. C. P., Presiding Elder. 



II.— RECOMMENDATION TO THE TRAVELLING CONNEXION. 



To the Bishop and members of the JV. Conference, 

to be held at L , May 1, 18 

Dear Fathers and Brethren, — 

We, the members of the Quarterly Conference of 
Newland Circuit, being acquainted with the gifts, 
grace, and usefulness of our brother 1ST. P., do hereby 
recommend him as a suitable person to be admitted 
on trial in the travelling connexion, he having been 
examined by us on the subject of doctrines and disci- 
pline. 
Done at a Quarterly Conference held at Newland, 
April 1,18 , and signed by order and in behalf 
of said conference. 
R. F., Secretary. D. C, Presiding Elder. 



Sec. II.] FOR PRESIDING ELDERS. 251 

HI.— RECOMMENDATION FOE DEACON OR ELDER'S ORDERS. 



To the Bishop and members of the JV". Conference, 
to be held at G , May 1, 18 

Dear Fathers and Brethren, — 

We, the members of the Quarterly Conference of 
Kewland Circuit, being acquainted with the gifts, 
grace, and usefulness of our brother N". P., do here- 
by recommend him as a suitable person to be or- 
dained deacon (or elder) in the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, he having been for four consecutive years a 
regularly licensed local preacher, (or having held the 
office of deacon for four consecutive years,) and hav- 
ing been examined before us on the subject of doc- 
trines and discipline. 

Done at a Quarterly Conference held at Newland, 
Jan. 1, 18 , and signed in behalf of said Quar- 
terly Conference. P. G-., Presiding Elder. 

S. H., Secretary. 



If the local deacon cannot attend the annual conference, 
he must subscribe his name to a note like the following, 
which should be appended to the preceding recommenda- 
tion : — 



This may certify that I firmly believe the doctrines 
taught by the Methodist Episcopal Church, and cor- 
dially approve of her form of Discipline. 

Newland, Jan. 1, 18 N. P. 



It is recommended that in all cases the signature 
of the local deacon be appended to a note like the 
above, whether he can or cannot attend the annual 
conference. 



252 FORMULAS. [Chap. IX, 

IV.— RECOMMENDATION FOR RECOGNITION 01 ORDERS. 

To the Bishop and members of the AT. Conference, to 

be held at C , May 1, 18 . 

Dear Fathers and Brethren, — 

This is to certify that A. B. has been admitted as 
a local preacher on the Newland Circuit, and he, 
having been ordained to the office of elder according 

to the usages of the Church, of which he has 

been a member and minister, is hereby recommended 
as a suitable person to be recognised as an elder in 
the Methodist Episcopal Church, he having been ex- 
amined by us on his agreement with the doctrines, 
discipline, government, and usages of our Church. 

Done at a Quarterly Conference held at Newland, 
April 1, 18 , and signed by order and in be- 
half of said conference. 

N". F., Secretary. D. G., Presiding Elder. 

v.— recommendation for restoration of cre- 
dentials. 

To the Bishop and members of N. Conference, to be 
held at C , April 1, 18 

Dear Fathers and Brethren, — 

We, the members of the Quarterly Conference of 
Newland Circuit, hereby recommend the restoration 
of the credentials of N". M., he having been admitted 
as a local preacher on the Newland Circuit, and hav- 
ing been examined by us on the subject of doctrines 
and discipline. 

Done at a Quarterly Conference held at Newland, 
March 1, 18 , and signed by order and in be- 
half of said conference. 

P. M., Secretary. C. C, Presiding Elder. 



S.l. II.] FOE PRESIDING ELDERS. 253 

VL-SUPERANNUATED PREACHERS CERTIFICATE. 



To the Bishop and members of the N. Conference, to 
oe held at L , May 1, 18 . 

Dear Fathers axb Brethren, — 

This may certify that A. B. has resided during the 
past year within the bounds of the 0. Circuit, H. 
District, N". Conference, and sustained an irreproach- 
able Christian and ministerial character. Brother D. 
has a wife, one child under seven years of age, and 
one between the ages of seven and fourteen years, 
and, in my judgment, requires for their support the 
sum of — dollars. 
Signed by order and in behalf of said quarterly 
conference. 

C. D., Presiding Elder of H. Dist., or 
A. L., Pr. in Charge on 0, Circuit. 
0., March 1, 18 . 



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